Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title Study highlights lack of disease outbreak preparedness Degree of recognition National Media name/outlet NewsGP Media type Web Country/Territory Australia Date 14/11/24 Description Research has indicated Australia is not ready for another pandemic, with one expert arguing GP data needs to be used to identify disease hotspots...
Chair of RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care Professor Mark Morgan told newsGP it is ‘absolutely important’ to examine the preparedness of the health system.
‘Because there were gaps when we were hit with the COVID-19 pandemic, but also previously with
swine flu and preparation for the possibility of avian influenza,’ he said.
‘All of those threats should have led to a robust emergency planning that involved all aspects of the health system.
‘That disaster planning is important and should be regular, so I think the researchers are right to have focused on this.’
Professor Morgan said Australia is also lacking a large-scale disease surveillance system that actively records and monitors presentations in general practice.
‘What’s missing is a massive surveillance system that identifies the reason for visits, identified in general practice records, which could certainly give a very good early warning to an outbreak,’ he said.
‘There’s a strong argument for public health use of that sort of data and would be much better than GPs just chatting to each other about whether, for example, there seems to be a lot of gastro around at the moment, or I’m seeing a lot of this infection over another infection.’
The Primary Sense system is one example of this and has already been established on the Gold Coast, allowing for heat maps of the area to be generated.
‘We’re able to demonstrate emerging outbreaks of reasons for visits and map those to locations, and do that anonymously,’ Professor Morgan said...
Professor Morgan also argues that it is key to ‘respectfully engage general practice alongside public health and hospital-based planning’.
‘There are lessons to be learned and plans to be made,’ he said.
‘There does need to be a decision made that adequately funds the planning process and the maintenance of plans.’Producer/Author Chelsea Heaney URL https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/study-highlights-lack-of-disease-outbreak-prepared?utm_source=racgpnewsgpnewsletter&utm_campaign=newsgpedm&utm_medium=email Persons Mark Morgan