State health emergency response plan

State health emergency response planVictorian pre-hospital and hospital response plan for emergency incidents

Third edition

Within the multi-agency Emergency Management Team at each tier of an emergency, the Health Commander represents the pre-hospital functions, and the Health Coordinator represents the Department of Health. Their role is to ensure that the Controller and other agencies understand the health impacts of the emergency and the health strategies required to protect the community.

‘Victoria Police has a range of roles in emergency management and the third edition of SHERP clearly sets out how we interact with the health sector in times of emergency. I would urge all members of Victoria Police to read the new edition and become familiar with its contents.’

Ken LayChief Commissioner Victoria Police

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A subplan of the State emergency response plan

SHERP can be downloaded from www.health.vic.gov.au/SHERP

To receive this document in an accessible format phone National Relay Service on 13 36 77Authorised and published by the Victorian Government, 50 Lonsdale St, Melbourne.Except where otherwise indicated, the images in this publication show models and illustrative settings only, and do not necessarily depict actual services, facilities or recipients of services.© Department of Health, January 2014 (1310031)

‘Fire and emergency services personnel are the incident controllers on most occasions. This edition of SHERP more clearly states how to get health and medical specialists, such as paramedics, first aid and medical teams, on scene. All incident controllers need to be familiar with SHERP.’

Craig Lapsley Fires Services Commissioner

State health emergency response plan

What is SHERP?

The State health emergency response plan (SHERP) outlines the arrangements for coordinating the health response to emergency incidents that go beyond day-to-day business arrangements.

SHERP is a subplan of the Victorian State Emergency Response Plan. It is an all-hazard, scalable plan and now includes detailed arrangements for regional and state health responses.

The aims of SHERP are to reduce preventable death and permanent disability; and to improve patient outcomes by matching the needs of injured patients to an appropriate level of treatment in a safe and timely manner.

SHERP ensures a safe, effective and coordinated health and medical response to emergencies by:

• clarifying who is accountable for command and coordination of the health response

• outlining the arrangements for escalating the health response

• describing how available clinical resources are organised

• describing how the health emergency response connects with the broader state and national emergency management response and recovery arrangements.

‘For the first time, SHERP includes hospital Code Brown planning alongside the response of ambulance, first aid and medical responders. There is now clear, detailed information on the health role under my command as the State Health and Medical Commander. I urge all health responders to read the third edition of SHERP.’

Professor Chris Brook State Health and Medical Commander

Who should use SHERP?

SHERP should be used by all individuals and organisations that operate under the plan, or are connected with the plan through other emergency management arrangements, to undertake their planning and preparedness activities. These include:

• community members

• incident control agencies

• Department of Health

• Ambulance Victoria

• first aid providers

• medical providers (including general practitioners)

• health services (public and private hospitals)

• residential and aged care services

• relief agencies

• local government authorities

• organisers of major events.

‘Ambulance Victoria is pleased that SHERP now recognises the key role that members of the community play as first responders to health emergencies. The new edition also describes the role of AV in providing Health Commanders at incident, regional and state level. Anyone who is involved in emergency response should read SHERP.’

Greg Sassella CEO Ambulance Victoria

At the incident tier, SHERP provides the framework for all responding health agencies to work together, led by a Health Commander with support from the Health Incident Management Team (HIMT). The operations function of the HIMT has representatives from each of the clinical sections that are engaged with the incident. The Health Commander is responsible for requesting these clinical resources.