The recovery phase is about getting services back on track. Therefore, what is required in the recovery phase will depend on the impact of the pandemic and on how far your practice deviated from usual operations during the pandemic. Activities to assist a community affected by a pandemic include a return to normal business with the restoration of emotional, social, economic and physical wellbeing.
Even in the case of low impact, there will be some areas in your pandemic plan that worked well and other areas that did not. There may also be individual differences in impact felt by staff members and patients. Evaluations of what worked and what didn’t are critical for capturing key lessons learned and recommendations for improvements – they help to identify what worked and the gaps and weaknesses.
As described earlier, planning is a fluid process. During the development of a revised plan, it is recommended that the pandemic leader and coordinator meet and discuss the staff’s learnings and, where appropriate, ensure they incorporate learnings into the planning process.
Additionally, during a pandemic, the RACGP and relevant government bodies will release additional resources to support practices in managing the outbreak of the virus. The content from these resources should also be incorporated into future planning processes.
While it is recommended that practices update their pandemic plan every February (which is in time for flu season), practices may wish to update their pandemic plan earlier (eg during the recovery process). This will ensure that the learnings are fresh and can be easily incorporated into the new plan.