ISRE Report
Planning for pandemics – prehospital preparedness decades in the making Decades of planning have informed the Queensland Ambulance Service’s robust and measured response to COVID-19, ensuring the safety of paramedics, their families and patients. Insight caught up with Information Support, Research and Evaluation (ISRE) Unit Director Dr Emma Bosley PhD to discuss the scope of work done behind the frontline. Dr Bosley said it was no accident the QAS’s response to this unprecedented public health event has been so thorough.
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“Since the mid-1990s, Queensland has endured many extreme events, from devasting bushfire seasons to the destruction caused by the 2010-11 and 2019 floods, and Tropical Cyclones Larry and Yasi - which saw the complete evacuation of the Cairns Base Hospital,’’ Dr Bosley said. “Throughout, our expertise and professionalism in responding to major events has been honed and our service has developed a proud reputation in the eyes of the community as being highly dependable.” Dr Bosley said, ‘with respect to this pandemic, every arm of the service has come together to seamlessly enact our contingency planning’.
“From a research perspective, we’ve contributed by reviewing and preparing summaries of literature and previously completed research, including the 2008 joint publication authored by the Australian Centre for Prehospital Research (then comprising the University of Queensland and QAS) and Monash University, The Australian Prehospital pandemic risk perception study and an examination of new public health roles for ambulance services in pandemic response,” she said. “This seminal work laid the foundations for understanding the potential operational impact during a pandemic - focusing on the characteristics, attitudes and perceptions of the prehospital workforce, and their families. “Our early investment in that research — some 12 years ago now — helped to
Winter 2020
inform our 2020 response, tailored to understanding their perspectives and concerns, which were collated via a national survey and focus groups. “Doing the hard yards back then with such targeted quantitative and qualitative research methods has allowed us to meet — and exceed — our responsibilities today when it comes to ensuring the safety of our personnel, and in turn, their loved ones.” Dr Bosley said the challenge of COVID-19 tested the service’s planning and contingency strategies like no other incident in modern history. “We have to remember, unlike a major multi-casualty incident where there’s no risk of harm to friends and family after clocking off — a novel virus such as COVID-19, particularly in its initial stages, can create anxiety for staff and community members, even with
