Stunt patients put 24 Hour Surgery to the test

Media release 16 May 2007

Stunt patients put 24 Hour Surgery to the test

A pair of ‘stunt patients’ posing as foreign poultry farmers with pandemic influenza symptoms will put the Pegasus Health 24 Hour Surgery to the test as part of a nation-wide exercise.

General practice, along with all other facets of the health system, are testing their pandemic preparedness processes and systems via Exercise Cruickshank, which wraps up today (17 May).

Spotting the patients won’t be difficult for staff since they’ll be wearing eye catching bright orange overalls. What will be under the spotlight is how the 24 Hour Surgery responds to the ‘threat’, and whether its internal and referral systems work.

“Like all health organisations we’ve done a lot of planning around the way we would respond if it was for real,” says Pegasus Health 24 Hour Surgery General Manger Paul Abernethy.

“With a highly infectious virus like pandemic influenza there is no room for complacency. Our infection control, patient isolation and other processes have to work like clockwork, and staff have to respond fast and decisively.”

“Staff know what to do and none of it is complex, but like all things pandemic related, even the simple things are easy to miss or get wrong – probably because they are so simple. The basic principles of pandemic preparedness that every household should be thinking about – much higher levels of hygiene, the ability to isolate or quarantine sick people from well ones, protecting yourself from the illness and ensuring you’re stocked up with everything you need to handle influenza, including knowing what to do and when - also applies to us. Just to a much greater degree.”

Mr Abernethy says with its high rate of casual and non-resident patients, the 24 Hour Surgery could very well be the first port of call for a pandemic influenza case.

ends

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