With concerns about the resurgence of COVID-19 in Melbourne and Sydney, there are key steps Australian authorities have taken to raise preparedness levels.

In an editorial published in the British Journal of General Practice (DOI: 10.3399/bjgp20X710765), Honorary Flinders Professor Michael Kidd outlines Australia’s COVID-19 primary care response which forms a framework for managing both the current crisis and future responses.

Five principles for pandemic preparedness: lessons from the Australian COVID-19 primary care response:

1. Protection of vulnerable people
Members of the community most vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 are normally being cared for by GPs and other primary healthcare providers.
People at particular risk from COVID-19 include those who are aged over 70 years, people who are immunocompromised or with specific chronic medical conditions, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 50 years of age with chronic conditions. Dedicated funding for the provision of telehealth consultations was made available to ensure both vulnerable patients and vulnerable healthcare providers were protected from the start of the pandemic.

2. Provision of treatment and support services to affected people
As the majority of people infected with COVID-19 experience mild to moderate symptoms and do not require hospitalisation, ongoing medical care can be provided by general practice and other primary care services. A core component of pandemic planning should be facilitating testing and the effective management in community settings of people with symptoms, or a diagnosis of infection, or contacts of those with a diagnosis, and who do not require hospitalisation.
As part of the Australian response, over 130 general practice-led respiratory clinics were established in metropolitan and rural areas nationwide to assess, test, and manage people with mild to moderate symptoms of respiratory tract infection, and divert people with potential infection away from regular practice clinics and hospital emergency departments

3. Continuity of regular healthcare services
Evidence from past epidemics and pandemics demonstrates the added risk to people’s health when the population stops attending healthcare services due to concerns about the risk of infection.7,9,13 It is essential to retain the functional capability of general practices and the wider primary healthcare system to ensure the continued provision of regular primary care services to the whole community for the assessment and management of acute conditions, chronic conditions, mental health conditions, and preventive health measures.

4. Protection and support of primary healthcare workers and services
Primary healthcare workers in Australia, as elsewhere in the world, were very concerned about the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), which was in limited supply globally at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian government secured supplies and distributed PPE through the primary health networks to general practices, community pharmacies, and other primary healthcare providers.

5. Provision of mental health to the community and the primary healthcare workforce
General practices and other primary healthcare services play a critical role in the provision of mental health services. The need for these services has been exacerbated by the impacts of job losses and business closures, and the impact of isolation and quarantine measures on many members of the population. The mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers, including those working in primary care, has also been significant. The Australian Government has provided funding to develop and deliver dedicated resources to support the mental health of healthcare workers and the wider community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Michael Kidd AM as Principal Medical Advisor to the Department of Health and Professor of Primary Care Reform at The Australian National University. He is Honorary Professor of Global Primary Care with the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University.