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 Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) 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 drug and therapeutics committees 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 drug and therapeutics committees and pharmacy departments and organisations
  • identify, prioritise and escalate issues related to COVID-19 which are actually or potentially affecting clinicians providing drug and therapeutics 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 Resources
  • Clinical Lead: Professor Jennifer Martin, Chair of the discipline of Clinical Pharmacology in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle. Working in the Hunter New England Local Health District, Jennifer leads a team of pharmacy and medicine experts together with pharmacoepidemiologists and pharmacoeconomists, who work across a number of areas including cancer. Jennifer is also chair of the NSW Health High-Cost Medicines Sub-committee that supports the NSW Medicines Formulary.
  • Community of practice secretariat: Nina Muscillo, Principal Lead Medication Safety, Clinical Excellence Commission
  • Key stakeholders:
    • DTC members
    • Directors of Pharmacy
    • NSW public hospitals
    • NSW Private Hospital pharmacy sector
    • NSW Chief Pharmacist
    • Medication Safety Unit, Clinical Excellence Commission
    • Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (NSW branch).

The CEC 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 Strategic Reform and Planning.

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).

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 clinical pharmacologists, members of DTCs, pharmacists, and clinicians interested in quality use of medicines. 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 CEC-Therapeutics@health.nsw.gov.au

Frequency of the community of practice

Monthly basis on a Thursday at 9.30am using Microsoft Teams. The Microsoft Teams link will be attached to the calendar invite. Initial fortnightly meetings (facilitated by NSW TAG) commenced 1 April 2020, subsequent monthly meetings (facilitated by the CEC) commenced 10 November 2021.

Guidelines and resources


Current as at: Friday 17 March 2023
Contact page owner: Health Protection NSW