In accordance with Public Sector Commission Circular 2009-19, all public sector bodies must practise risk management, regularly undertake a structured risk assessment process to identify the risks facing their organisations, be able to demonstrate the management of risks, and where appropriate, have continuity plans to ensure they can respond to and recover from any business disruption.

Hospitals are required to have plans in place to deal with service continuity disruptions. Where the ability of the hospital to resume/restore services is overwhelmed, the State Health Business Continuity Plan, or State BCP, (a sub plan of WestPlan-Health) is activated, and coordination of the restoration of some of the hospital’s services is transferred to the DPMU / State Health Incident Coordination Centre.

The State BCP details service continuity plans for a number of health service functions and resource requirements across WA Health including catering, electricity, linen, gases, water, communications, clinical equipment and blood products. Each service category is assigned an expert advisor who is responsible for advising DPMU on the plan, and advising the State Health Coordinator in the event of activation.

The State BCP also includes plans to meet the surge in hospital resource needs in the event of a mass casualty incident. 

The current Metro BCP 2004 is under review. A new version will be released in 2012.

For further information, contact us.