Disaster preparation is essential to service continuity. Develop an emergency response plan and review/update it every year so you can be better positioned to respond to an emergency. Use COORDINARE's Disaster Planning and Response checklist to check if your plans are as up-to-date and comprehensive as they could be.

Our General Practice Disaster management toolkit is an in-depth resource for practices who want to take their emergency planning and preparedness to the next level. The toolkit steps you through three quality improvement activities to undertake and includes valuable information, checklists and resources.

Checking in with other local practices and health services, such as pharmacy, imaging and pathology about their plans is a great way to start to develop a community approach to responding to emergencies. Include the contact details of your local health services in your emergency plan, and don't forget to have a plan in place to send communications to patients about service disruptions or changes.

COORDINARE have created an RACGP and ACRRM CPD Approved mini audit where you can critically analyse the plans and procedures that are already in place in your practice, learn about the best practice principles involved in business continuity and disaster planning, then choose and plan one area for quality improvement.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) developed the Managing emergencies in general practice guide to assist practices in disaster preparation, response and recovery.

Telehealth is crucial for people in rural and regional areas, particularly those displaced by disasters.

If you do not currently have a telehealth platform or would like any information or support, please contact our Digital Health Team on 1300 069 002.

COORDINARE currently holds a register of almost 60 individuals who are willing to assist during an emergency situation.

We are always looking for more health professionals and administration staff to join our disaster response register.

Primary care organisations can register their interest in providing assistance, in the event that an emergency or disaster impacts their local area.

Support could be in the form of scaling up, hosting staff from affected organisations, providing vaccine fridge space, or by temporarily taking on new patients.