Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

Primary health care workers providing care in remote areas have faced challenges during COVID-19 including inaccessibility to locales, poor hospital infrastructure and facilities, and meeting the needs of vulnerable communities. In Australia, remote health services also face challenges in maintaining adequate appointment and retention of healthcare workers. Consider how to protect remote healthcare staff and remote communities, for example:

• Be mindful of competition between remote and metropolitan areas for staff and resources during COVID-19
• Consider the reliance of remote health services' on short-term or fly-in, fly-out/drive-in, drive-out staff, and the increased risk of transmission into remote areas
• Ensure there are adequate point-of-care COVID-19 testing sites in remote communities to avoid unnecessary travel to centralised locations and to reduce delays in test results
• Consider distribution and storage challenges in maintaining adequate stocks of PPE. Remote health service may also benefit from stocks of hygiene products to distribute to community households through remote health services
• Ensure remote health services are meeting regularly with other essential services e.g. police, schools, and hospitals locally and regionally, to develop local plans for concurrent emergencies in isolated areas
• Ensure the availability of an adequate, appropriately trained local workforce, especially for outbreaks in healthcare buildings
• Consider heightened costs for accommodation for remote healthcare workers due to staffing constraints or COVID-related isolation
• Consider staff burnout due to impact of insufficient staff, frequent orientation of new staff, concerns about the clinical and cultural competency of incoming short-term staff and continuity of care