COVID-19: Halting the spread

Editorial: Danielle Ford

While Victoria Police’s dedicated team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and support staff that make up the Custodial Health Service (CHS) provide a round-theclock service every day, things became significantly busier for them as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The team is responsible for ensuring the health of people detained in police custody, along with providing expert health advice to police officers and Police Custody Officers (PCOs) managing cells around the state.

With their job involving a significant amount of close, face-to-face contact with members of the public, Acting Chief Custodial Health Officer Dr Michael Wong said it was vital the team quickly and effectively adapted to a new way of working during the pandemic.

“Nurses in management roles returned to the frontline to better support the team through the unfolding unprecedented event,” Dr Wong said.

“Pharmacy staff took on the responsibility of maintaining supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) and test kits.

“Our clinical administration team prepared and created systems for recording and tracking suspected cases among people in custody and employees and ensured this information was communicated with partner agencies when needed.

“All of this was done in addition to the regular clinical services the team provides to people in police custody across Victoria each day.”

Custodial Nurse Clare Allen (front) and G4S employees Kate Grant and Jodie Wyatt are part of the dedicated team that has been working around the clock to ensure the safety of people in custody and staff working in the facilities.

CHS nurse manager Emily Armstrong said the team was extremely experienced in managing communicable diseases and caring for unwell people, but had never faced a challenge quite like what was required for this pandemic – a challenge they rose to.

“Our nurses manage a Custodial Health Advice Line for police and PCOs and calls to this line increased dramatically during the pandemic,” Ms Armstrong said.

“From the information collected from these calls, we were able to improve our decisionmaking processes and procedures to ensure we took every precaution to reduce the risk of coronavirus being transmitted in custody facilities.”

The team also developed a set of screening questions, which were added to the existing assessment done on each person entering police custody.

These questions helped nurses work closely with custody staff to identify and isolate more than 420 potential cases as of 7 June.

Victoria Police worked closely with Corrections Victoria, Justice Health and prisoner transport provider G4S to minimise the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak within the prisoner community.

Dr Wong said the success of these partnerships was evident, with no cases of coronavirus recorded in any juvenile or adult correctional facilities.

“Our CHS team plays a vital role in keeping it that way,” he said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has really demonstrated the importance of the work this team does and the commitment we have to ensuring the health and wellbeing of people who come through custody and our staff.”