Primary care in disasters : opportunity to address a hidden burden of health care

Penelope L. Burns, Kirsty A. Douglas, Wendy Hu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In Australia, “a land ... of droughts and flooding rains,” disasters affect our lives annually, the majority of which are weather-related. They are a part of the landscape, taking the form of cyclones, floods, bushfires, droughts and other phenomena. Cyclone Debbie, which hit northern Queensland in 2017, the Tathra bushfires, which affected the south coast of New South Wales in 2018, and the thunderstorm asthma event in Melbourne in 2016 are just a few recent examples. Such catastrophic events affect rural and urban communities and coastal and inland locations. No community in Australia is exempt, which is reflected in the recent shift in focus by national and international disaster management policy to prioritise improving local community capacity to respond and recover. For health care, this new focus is putting general practitioners in the spotlight. Central to the provision and coordination of patient health care at the community level, GPs provide an important contribution to local health care during disasters. However, evidence to support a clear understanding of that contribution has been lacking until recently.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)297-299.e1
Number of pages4
JournalMedical Journal of Australia
Volume210
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Australia
  • climatic changes
  • continuum of care
  • disaster medicine

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