Environment 1
Track 16
| Friday, October 27, 2023 |
| 10:35 AM - 12:30 PM |
| Meeting Room C4.9 |
Speaker
A/Prof Penelope Burns
General Practitioner
Sydney North Health Network
General Practitioners in Disaster Health Management: an Australian scenario.
10:35 AM - 11:30 AMSummary
The impact of disasters on health and well-being is increasing globally. No community is free of risk, whether from a natural disaster, or a man-made disaster. General Practitioners (GPs) in those communities will inevitably be involved in disaster response, whether ad hoc and without support, or as part of the broader system. It is important that GPs, with their dual role as local health professional and local community member, are prepared for such events to enable effective and safe contributions. In a growing number of countries, GPs are being asked to provide local disaster healthcare as the value and capacity of General Practice contribution is increasingly understood.
This session will involve GPs in a disaster scenario, set in the Australian context, in the bush around Sydney where numerous bushfires, floods, storms and heatwaves have threatened lives and/or homes over the preceding decades. The presenters will use a narrative multimedia approach to take participants through the disaster, discussing the substantial and longterm physical and psychosocial health impacts on the local population, and providing attendees with the lessons learned from GPs who have experienced Australian and New Zealand disasters.
The scenario will emphasise knowledge and practical skills useful in responding to a disaster, and invite attendees to consider how to prepared for such an event, how they might respond, and to demonstrate useful disaster skills. The discussion will include how other emergency services are responding, and demonstrate how Australian GPs are finally being linked into the broader disaster response system. It will examine the GP’s crucial role in supporting their patient community through recovery, through leadership and advocacy.
The presenters especially welcome the insights and learnings from visiting overseas attendees and would like to share strategies amongst attendees for increasing the integration of GPs into DHM, and relevant online accessible resources.
This session will involve GPs in a disaster scenario, set in the Australian context, in the bush around Sydney where numerous bushfires, floods, storms and heatwaves have threatened lives and/or homes over the preceding decades. The presenters will use a narrative multimedia approach to take participants through the disaster, discussing the substantial and longterm physical and psychosocial health impacts on the local population, and providing attendees with the lessons learned from GPs who have experienced Australian and New Zealand disasters.
The scenario will emphasise knowledge and practical skills useful in responding to a disaster, and invite attendees to consider how to prepared for such an event, how they might respond, and to demonstrate useful disaster skills. The discussion will include how other emergency services are responding, and demonstrate how Australian GPs are finally being linked into the broader disaster response system. It will examine the GP’s crucial role in supporting their patient community through recovery, through leadership and advocacy.
The presenters especially welcome the insights and learnings from visiting overseas attendees and would like to share strategies amongst attendees for increasing the integration of GPs into DHM, and relevant online accessible resources.
Takeaways
1. Appreciate the key roles and contributions of GPs in disaster health management, and how these fit with the roles of other responders in the broader response.
2. Evaluate the disaster health care needs of patients before, during, and after the catastrophe.
3. Be able to prepare for the dual roles of a local GP in healthcare provision, and personal and family safety, when disaster strikes the local community.
2. Evaluate the disaster health care needs of patients before, during, and after the catastrophe.
3. Be able to prepare for the dual roles of a local GP in healthcare provision, and personal and family safety, when disaster strikes the local community.
Biography
Associate Professor Penny Burns is a General Practitioner working as a disaster consultant with Northern Sydney Health Network and as a clinician at the Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney. She has been involved in working to improve the interface between disasters and General Practice since the 2009 Victorian bushfires, through the Brisbane floods, the 2019 Black Summer bushfires, and the last two pandemics. Penny has personal experience of bushfire disasters, has contributed to response at the frontline, as GP liaison in emergency operations centres, and in contributions to guidelines and policy.
Penny is a member of ATAGI, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations and co-Chair of the inaugural WADEM, World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Primary Care Special Interest Group, presenting at their Congress in Ireland this year.
She is Deputy Chair of the RACGP Disaster Management Special Interest Group. Penny is passionate about ensuring that GPs are integrated into disaster management before disasters occur, and are recognised and valued when disaster does strike, with support for business continuity in the months after the disaster. She goes so far as to see GPs as the key healthcare responder in disasters with the ability to optimise patient’s health outcomes following the disaster, but also to reduce the risk to patients health before and during the disaster. Penny has completed a PhD at the Australian National University examining how GPs can contribute to, and be integrated into, the broader disaster health management system.
WONCA Working Party on Environment
WONCA
The climate and ecological crisis. What can you do in your practice?
11:35 AM - 12:30 PMSummary
Summary
Most family doctors and health care workers care about the climate and ecological crisis. Their problem is that they do not know what they can do about it. This session answers the question 'What can I do in my practice?'
Help already exists. There are guidelines for family practice in different countries, and some of these will be shared and discussed in this session.
For example since 2014 the UK's Royal College of General Practitioners has a free Green Impact for Health toolkit with over 100 practical actions that practices can take. The toolkit is a continuous quality improvement process that gives the reason for taking each action, gives tips on how take the action and maps the way to achieve being a net zero carbon emission practice.
Timetable for the session
Brief introduction explaining how the session will be run - 5 min
The learning needs of attendees will be sought and documented - 10min
A video presentation that demonstrates the contents of RCGP Green Impact for health toolkit and how it works -10min
Presentation of other format/toolkits (eg US, Australia, New Zealand) -10min
Q&A session including links to remote presenters- 20min
Summary and next steps to address needs of attendees - 5 min
Most family doctors and health care workers care about the climate and ecological crisis. Their problem is that they do not know what they can do about it. This session answers the question 'What can I do in my practice?'
Help already exists. There are guidelines for family practice in different countries, and some of these will be shared and discussed in this session.
For example since 2014 the UK's Royal College of General Practitioners has a free Green Impact for Health toolkit with over 100 practical actions that practices can take. The toolkit is a continuous quality improvement process that gives the reason for taking each action, gives tips on how take the action and maps the way to achieve being a net zero carbon emission practice.
Timetable for the session
Brief introduction explaining how the session will be run - 5 min
The learning needs of attendees will be sought and documented - 10min
A video presentation that demonstrates the contents of RCGP Green Impact for health toolkit and how it works -10min
Presentation of other format/toolkits (eg US, Australia, New Zealand) -10min
Q&A session including links to remote presenters- 20min
Summary and next steps to address needs of attendees - 5 min
Takeaways
1. Answer the question ‘what can I do in my practice to increase its sustainability, mitigate and adapt for the climate and ecological emergency?’
2. Identify effective actions in a systems-based and continuous quality improvement process to increase sustainability within the practice
2. Identify effective actions in a systems-based and continuous quality improvement process to increase sustainability within the practice
Biography
