What is the Winter Strategy?

The Winter Strategy is a program in which COORDINARE will support general practice teams to lead heightened quality and intensity of care, for a group of patients that clinicians think are at high risk of being unstable, very unwell, or admitted to hospital during the 2019 flu season.

The Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) and NSW Health has identified that those most at risk in the flu season belong to a number of vulnerable groups including:

• persons aged ≥65 years of age
• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people aged 6 months and over
• people aged 6 months and over who have medical conditions predisposing to severe influenza; such as cardiac disease, chronic respiratory conditions
• people aged 6 months and over with chronic illness including diabetes mellitus and / or multiple chronic conditions; and
• people on multiple medications.

The Winter Strategy will support practices to choose a model/s of service delivery, aligned to their capacity and service needs.