Winter planning

We know there are people in the community who are particularly vulnerable to influenza and COVID-19, and page 10 of the NSW Health Influenza Vaccination Provider Toolkit provides detail on patients to target for funded vaccines. If you need help identifying these at risk populations at your practice, refer to COORDINARE’s Winter Strategy clinical data auditing activities using CAT4.

Other vulnerable groups may also be considered 'at-risk' for developing influenza and can be identified by using the CAT4 tool. Below are some aides for these patients.

Refugee and migrant populations

• llawarra Shoalhaven HealthPathways Refugee Health
• ACT & SNSW HealthPathways Refugee Health
• Translating and Interpreting Service
• Model of care for refugees

Family and domestic violence

• Illawarra Shoalhaven HealthPathways Domestic Family Violence
• ACT & SNSW HealthPathways Assault or Abuse
• Domestic violence help

At risk or socially disengaged adolescents

• Illawarra Shoalhaven HealthPathways Child or Young Person at Risk
• ACT & SNSW HealthPathways Child or Young Person at Risk

Patients with dementia

• Illawarra Shoalhaven HealthPathways Older Persons' Health
• ACT & SNSW HealthPathways Older Adults' Health

Pregnant patients

• Refer to instructions from Medical Director or HealthPathways to identify these patients.

This toolkit aims to help practices identify and implement processes to support those vulnerable groups most at risk of becoming unstable, very unwell or admitted to hospital during the flu season:

• Quality improvement toolkit: preparing for winter and Quality improvement plan template                

This toolkit aims to help practices review their systems to ensure infection control and safe work environments are maintained during the pandemic:

• Quality improvement toolkit: infection control

This clinical data auditing excerpt is part of the SPDS program and can be used to identify vulnerable patient cohorts for follow-up by clinicians:

• Winter Strategy - clinical data auditing activities using CAT

This model of care incorporates different elements of the 2019 Winter Strategy projects that can be adapted to fit your practice patient population and interests:

• Winter Strategy model of care

These quality improvement recipes provide simple ideas that practices can implement:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander QI recipe
• patients with cardiac conditions QI recipe
• patients with diabetes QI recipe
• patients with multiple chronic conditions QI recipe
• patients on multiple medications QI recipe
• patients with asthma QI recipe
• patients with COPD QI recipe.

These case studies, model of care documents and video resources from the Patient Centred Medical Home (PCMH) initiatives can be adapted to develop your own workflows in practice:

• PCMH resources

Other resources:

• RACGP: An introduction to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural protocols and perspectives
• COORDINARE Population Health Profile

As all practices have had to adapt rapidly to the increase in demand from patients for support with COVID-19, it’s great when we can share experiences between local practices that may assist others.

A number of practices have agreed to share some of their current workflows to support others also experiencing similar challenges:

• Bulli Medical Practice
• Terralong Street Surgery
• Woonona Medical Practice

When was the last time your practice reviewed its triage protocols? With a spike in COVID-19 and influenza cases, now may be the time!

The RACGP Standards for general practices has useful information to guide you whilst undertaking a review, or creating of a set of triage protocols if your practice doesn’t already have one.

This flu season there will be another set of immunisations being stored in your practice vaccine fridge. Maintenance of the cold chain, to successfully preserve those vaccines, is vital. Review the strive for 5 guidelines here.

Education in cold chain management for any staff who may not have received their training yet (or those staff members who would like a refresher) can be found here, and don’t forget to keep a register of who completed the training and when for accreditation and QI purposes!