In 2016 Health Protection NSW and the Office of the Chief Health Officer (OCHO) continued with a series of discussion exercises focused on public health responses to major incidents or emergencies. These brought together Health Protection NSW, Ministry of Health and Public Health Unit staff, as well as colleagues from other health disciplines and partner agencies to tackle aspects of the hypothetical scenarios including the public health response to a prolonged smoke emergency and an exotic mosquito incursion. Exercises were designed to familiarise participants with roles and responsibilities, and identify and resolve any gaps in proposed plans.
In 2016 the Office of the Chief Health Officer and Communicable Diseases Branch (CDB) released an update to the NSW Health Influenza Pandemic Plan. This policy directive provides guidance on a range of strategic response activities for NSW Health staff and agencies to effectively prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic, to minimise the adverse health impacts on the NSW population and reduce the burden and disruption to health-related services in NSW.
Prior to the release of this plan, OCHO and CDB also coordinated a NSW Health senior executive discussion exercise examining the new governance arrangements outlined in the plan.
In 2016 the Office of the Chief Health Officer published the NSW Public Health Services Standard Operating Procedures for Hazmat/CBRN Emergencies. The purpose of this guideline is to provide guidance to NSW public health services on their roles and responsibilities in the prevention of, preparation for, response to and recovery from a major hazardous materials/chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (Hazmat/CBRN) emergency.
In 2016 the Office of the Chief Health Officer published the NSW Public Health Services Standard Operating Procedure for an Explosive Event. The purpose of this guideline is to provide guidance to NSW public health services on their roles and responsibilities in response to an explosive event.
