Queensland Health’s role in a disaster or emergency incident
Queensland Health is at the forefront of the Queensland Government’s responsibilities for planning and managing public health emergencies, mass casualty incidents and disaster events.
We work under a range of legislation and policies to ensure effective risk management:
- planning across prevention, preparedness, response and recovery
- appropriate business continuity planning.
The Queensland State Disaster Management Plan identifies our disaster management responsibilities:
- functional lead agency for the emergency support function of public health and medical services (Queensland Health and HHSs)
- functional lead agency for the emergency support and state response function of emergency medical retrieval (the Department and Queensland Ambulance Service)
- primary hazard-specific agency for biological (human related), heat wave, pandemic, and radiological hazards
- joint lead agency for the state response function of mass casualty and mass fatality management (with the Queensland Police Service).
During a disaster or emergency incident, we may provide:
- pre-hospital response through deployment of site health teams
- aeromedical transport to support the Queensland Ambulance Service response
- information, advice and services to the community and partner agencies.