How to prepare your practice for a disaster

Our region is prone to a variety of natural emergencies, especially storms, bushfires, floods, windstorms, snowstorms and extended power supply issues. At times, this forces residents to evacuate their homes, and seek shelter and assistance at emergency evacuation centres. 

In the face of this, general practices should consider a business continuity plan in the event of extreme weather conditions, such as fire, flood or extended power supply issues. 

Tips for being prepared 

• Develop an up-to-date emergency response plan for your practice. Your practice may want to consider using the Emergency Response Planning Tool that was developed in conjunction with the RACGP.
• Wentworth Healthcare has a Disaster Planning Toolkit for Practices you can download and complete. 
• Exercise your plan on a regular basis (eg. as a desktop exercise).
• Contact other practices in your local area and agree on how you can offer mutual support (eg. if your practice is affected by a fire or another emergency and needs to close, you can have a plan in place to direct your patients to a nearby practice until the risk has been averted)
• Have a plan in place to send communications to patients about service disruptions or changes
• Refer to HealthPathways: Preparing Patients for a disaster
• Refer to HealthPathways: Preparing a General Practice for a disaster
• For more guidance on disaster preparedness, refer to the RACGP’s recently released guide on Managing Emergencies in General Practice: A Guide for Preparation, Response and Recovery. 

The most effective support you can provide during a time of disaster is to consider extending practice opening hours to accommodate an increase in patient demand.

Disaster Management Webinar

NSW State Emergency Service

Numbers to call

Where to find information

Hearing/speech impaired SMS

If an interpreter is required, emergency services can access translation services through NRS at 0423 677 767.

Internet Relay

NRS Call | Internet Relay

Support for homeless families

Link2home 1800 152 152

HealthPathways

Our HealthPathways team led the national development of a suite of pathways addressing Disaster Planning and Management addressing issues related to patients and general practice preparedness and recovery.

The pathways that have been developed are:

• General Practice Management during a Disaster
• Preparing a General Practice for Disaster
• Preparing Patients for a Disaster
• Post Natural Disaster Health
• Heat Related Illness
• Burn Injuries
• Specialist Burns Management

If you need access to HealthPathways, contact the HealthPathways team for a username and password.