Queensland Health’s role in a disaster
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.
Disaster and emergency incident plans
Last updated: 8 January 2019
