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General practice process for emergency PPE
AMA Queensland has worked with peer organisations and Queensland Health to create a process to support GPs to access emergency supplies of PPE.
This process has been developed in collaboration with Queensland GP Alliance (The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Rural Doctors Association Queensland and The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine), Queensland Health, and Queensland Primary Healthcare Networks, with endorsement from the Commonwealth Department of Health.
It is recommended GPs follow these steps in managing access to and supply of critical PPE:
- Primary Care own-sourcing: GPs should be obtaining PPE whenever possible through their own suppliers (Attachment 1 is a list of vetted suppliers for PPE provided by the Deputy Director-General and Chief Adviser, Procurement – Department of Energy and Public Works, Queensland Government).
- PHN assistance: When GPs are unable to source PPE through normal processes, they should contact their local PHN .
- HHS assistance (for rural and remote only) for guidance this would be MM3-MM7: In circumstances where GPs are unable to source PPE from their local PHN, obtaining emergency access to PPE from their local HHS will enable business continuity (Attachment 2 is a list of contact information for each MM3-MM7 Hospital and Health Service).
- Australian Department of Health: In an urgent situation where the first three above steps have been taken and supplies of critical PPE are unable to be sourced, it is recommended that GPs contact their local PHN who will liaise on their behalf with the Australian Department of Health to organise an emergency order of PPE. This order will fall outside of regular shipment cycles and will ship directly from the DHL Queensland warehouse to the GP. This process will also be prioritised for rural and remote areas.