ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 114
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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General practitioners in disaster health management:
An Australian scenario
A/Prof Penelope Burns1,2,3, Donna Pettigrew1, Louise McDonnell3,6, Adj Prof Karen Price4,
Duncan MacKinnon2,5
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Sydney North Health Network, 2Australian National University, 3Western Sydney University, 4Monash
University, 5COORDINARE – South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network, 6Nepean Blue Mountains
Primary Health Network
The impact of disasters on health and wellbeing 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 long-term 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 prepare 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 GPs’ 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 among attendees for increasing the integration of GPs into disaster
health management, and relevant online accessible resources.
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