On this page

1. Aim of the clinical community of practice
2. Governance
3. Clinical leads
4. This community of practice scope is not
5. Membership
6. Frequency of the community of practice
7. Guidelines and resources

Aim of the clinical community of practice

The NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) will provide an opportunity for sharing of ideas, strategies, local solutions and concerns with respect to COVID-19 pandemic preparedness.

The community of practice will be multidisciplinary and include representation from all districts and networks. It will enable clinicians and clinical managers in anaesthesia from all districts to provide expert advice and guidance to the system, and to escalate matters that require a statewide or system response.

The aim of these sessions is to:

• support clinicians to network and share strategies, local solutions and issues with respect to pandemic preparedness for anaesthesia
• identify, prioritise and escalate issues related to COVID-19 which are actually or potentially affecting clinicians providing anaesthetic care that require a statewide or system response
• review and provide expert clinical advice on guidelines, resources and other information
• share Ministry approved advice and resources on the response to COVID-19 that can be circulated within all districts and networks.

Governance

• Executive sponsor: Deb Willcox, Deputy Secretary, Health System Strategy and Planning
• Clinical lead: Dr Richard Halliwell, Anaesthetist, Westmead Hospital
• Community of practice secretariat: Michaela Ward
• Key stakeholders: Anaesthetic representatives from across all local health districts.

The ACI will escalate issues raised by the community of practice to Strategic Reform and Planning. Key information will be collected and distributed through MOH-COVID19-ClinicalAdvice@health.nsw.gov.au, which will be monitored by the Strategic Reform and Planning Branch.

Collated issues/advice will be escalated by Ms Willcox through to the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) and/or the State Health Emergency Operations Centre (SHEOC) as appropriate.

PHEOC and SHEOC responses will be provided to Strategic Reform and Planning and then to the community of practice secretariat(s).

Weekly community of practice updates will be provided to NSW Health Chief Executives.

Clinical leads

Each community of practice will have a clinical lead appointed by Deb Willcox, Deputy Secretary, Health System Strategy and Resources.

The clinical lead will:

• assist with the facilitation of the community of practice
• work with clinical peers in the districts and networks to share ideas and develop appropriate response strategies
• provide expert advice and guidance to the system and Ministry as required
• escalate relevant matters to the Ministry that require a statewide or system response
• provide expert advice to respond to media enquiries.

This community of practice scope is not

A group which is able to endorse statewide changes or make decisions that impacts a unit or system or allocate funding to recommendations.

Membership

This community of practice is open to all anaesthetic representatives. As a minimum it will include representation from all districts and networks. However, membership may be extended more broadly to include all interested NSW Health staff as well as professional colleges, private providers/clinicians and other non-government organisations as appropriate to the clinical speciality.

To join the community of practice participants should email Michaela.Ward@health.nsw.gov.au.

Documents

Documents under development, example documents and related supporting evidence is available on the Anaesthesia CoP SharePoint. Should you wish to be given access to the SharePoint and these resources, please contact Michaela.Ward@health.nsw.gov.au.

Frequency of the community of practice

Monthly on the first Tuesday of the month from 6pm-7pm using Skype. Skype details will be attached to the calendar invite.

Guidelines and resources