The Department of Health has been funding 1000 GP practices across Victoria for the last four years to access the online emergency and pandemic response planning tool, ERPT. This program ensured better resilience of primary care across the state and enhanced the ability of General Practice to respond and recover quickly from an unplanned event. This helps General Practice to better support their communities.
The funding will stop on 31st December 2023 and GP practices should consider self-funding. Why?
- Someone in the practice may have spent considerable time completing your practice’s ERPT
- It is the recommended emergency and pandemic planning tool by the RACGP and as such complies with the 5th edition of the GP standards toward your practice’s accreditation
- The content is reviewed each year with the RACGP to ensure it is relevant to the events/risks of the day
- It is online, secure and very easy to review and update
- It helps the practice to prepare to any unplanned event and helps with faster recovery
- The price to continue accessing ERPT is $350 per annum
- With the change in weather patterns and the growth of ground cover vegetation over the past 3 seasons, the bush fire threat is predicted to be worse.
To prepare for any emergency, practices should fully complete the ERPT to ensure that the practice has a prepared emergency response plan for all eventualities.
Practices who have accessed ERPT will be sent an invoice for $350 p.a. to continue their ERPT access once the funding ceases.