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COVID inquiry validates GP workforce impacts
The long-awaited report details Australia’s pandemic response, confirming that GPs must be central to future planning and not left in the dark.
Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler and Treasurer Jim Chalmers launching the COVID-19 Response Inquiry at Canberra’s Parliament House. (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)
It was the once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic that turned the world – and the healthcare system – upside down.
While the pandemic is no longer making headlines, the newly released independent COVID-19 Response Inquiry found Australia’s response and preparation was inadequate and many frontline healthcare workers were negatively impacted.
The inquiry, announced last year by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler, was released this week, revealing Australia went into the pandemic with overstretched healthcare services, National Medical Stockpile shortages, and no clear national management plan.
Minister Butler said the inquiry is ‘the blueprint to ensure Australia is better prepared for the next pandemic’.
‘As the inquiry makes clear, Australia lacked sufficient planning and preparation for a pandemic,’ he said. ‘There are a lot of lessons.’
Identifying ways to improve Australia’s preparedness for future pandemics from its initial response outcomes, the 900-page report was led by an independent panel of public health policy experts, including Robyn Kruk.
It includes guiding recommendations for a future successful pandemic response, identifying immediate actions for the next 12–18 months, including minimising harm, planning and preparedness, leadership, evidence and evaluation, agility and trust.
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins told newsGP the pandemic demonstrated that general practice is the centre of population health, but as laid bare in the report, GPs were often ill-equipped.
‘Australia’s response was inadequate and there was insufficient planning,’ she said.
‘We did the best with what we had at the time, but we need to do better for the future, and not have GPs put in this predicament again.
‘GPs need to be at the centre of any preparation for future pandemics.’
Vaccine rollout and National Medical Stockpile deficiencies
The inquiry finds the economic response to the pandemic was ‘critical in achieving desired public health outcomes’. However, delays in acquiring coronavirus vaccines and their distribution had an estimated economic cost of $31 billion.
The review panel raised issues around the timing of the release of vaccine eligibility advice, as well as the delivery of booster doses, noting it did not allow for coordinated public messaging with the states and territories and a ‘lack of credible and reliable information around vaccines and supply available’.
GPs also felt they were often the last to know of changes, undermining their relationships with patients. At a roundtable for the inquiry, GPs reported they felt ‘in no way prepared’ to participate in the emergency response.
Dr Higgins said this directly contributed to burnout among the profession.
‘GPs were at the frontline of delivering a vaccine, but the impact of indecision and delay contributed to the burnout that many GPs faced,’ she said.
While the National Medical Stockpile had a role in distributing PPE to healthcare workers during the pandemic, the report shows that uncertainty of access to PPE, particularly at the start of the pandemic, contributed to work-related stress.
Global supply chain shortages affected the National Medical Stockpile’s ability to provide sufficient medical supplies when demand soared, resulting in the stockpile competing with states and territories.
Workforce pressures
The report confirms there was greater demand on primary care during the pandemic, as access to emergency departments was less readily available and/or discouraged.
Primary care workers showed ‘a remarkable level of commitment, resilience and flexibility,’ the inquiry roundtable heard, and ‘played an essential role in supporting people to engage with and trust public health advice’, particularly in rural and remote communities, where access challenges were higher.
However, working at the pandemic frontline over a long period is well-known to have negatively impacted the mental health and wellbeing of many health workers, with the report stating that levels of stress, anxiety, fatigue and occupational burnout increased significantly. Workforce pressures also had flow-on impacts to patient access to primary care.
Dr Higgins said the impact is still being felt by many.
‘Having been at that frontline of COVID defence has had long-term impacts on the GP workforce,’ she said.
‘It’s caused long-term impacts on GPs, who are still fatigued, have low trust, and would agree with the findings of the inquiry.’
Australian Centre for Disease Control established
The COVID-19 Response Inquiry further identifies the need for establishment of a CDC, with Australia being the only OECD country without one.
In January 2023, an interim Australian CDC was set up to improve the way Australia prepares for and responds to health emergencies, including monitoring real-time statistics around virus spread and help to target responses. This was backed by the RACGP, providing the focus would be on preventing chronic conditions.
Last month, the RACGP responded to how the proposed set up would use healthcare data, calling for implementation to support prevention and response to public health emergencies and management of communicable diseases, now and into the future.
Dr Higgins said establishment of an Australian CDC is one of the RACGP’s key asks for pandemic preparedness.
‘The inquiry has confirmed that, and a CDC having an independent authority to be able to guide decisions in time, that’s independent of government and electoral cycles, is going to be really important for healthcare outcomes,’ she said.
‘It’s also a body that GPs and their patients can trust, because decisions based on evidence versus politics at the time.’
Following the release of the independent COVID-19 inquiry, Minister Butler announced ongoing arrangements for the $251.7 million Australian CDC.
‘As the COVID-19 inquiry highlighted, Australia wasn’t prepared for a pandemic,’ he said.
‘Because of the lack of planning, Australia’s pandemic response to COVID was slow, confused and lacked authority.
‘The establishment of the Australian CDC will ensure we are prepared next time. It will ensure Australia has a national organisation that brings together critical information and experts to deliver coherent, timely, trusted health advice to improve health outcomes for the whole country.’
The interim Australian CDC will continue to operate as part of the Department of Health and Aged Care until the launch of the independent CDC, expected on 1 January 2026 should legislation pass through Federal Parliament.
Recommendations
The report’s long list of recommendations, across several key areas, include:
Minimising harm
- Address critical gaps in health recovery from the pandemic, including prioritising greater investment in mental health support for children and young people and a COVID-19 ‘catch-up strategy’ in response to a decline in the delivery of key health prevention measures.
- Review the COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme, with a view to informing the future use of similar indemnity schemes in a national health emergency.
- Conduct post-action reviews of outstanding key COVID-19 response measures to ensure lessons are captured.
- Establish structures to ensure young people and their support people are genuinely engaged, and impacts on children are considered in pandemic preparedness activities and responses to future emergencies.
Planning and preparedness
- Develop updated health emergency planning and response arrangements with states and territories.
- Develop legislative and policy frameworks to support responses in a public health emergency.
- Finalise establishment of the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
The report also details recommendations for further medium-term actions prior to any national health emergency.
To guide GPs in their
role of pandemic planning and response, the
RACGP developed a toolkit for prevention, preparation, response and recovery.
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