Industries

With support from a global team who bring a wealth of field-tested experience, knowledge and skills to our service provision, Respond Global can support organisations to implement essential health services when and where they are needed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we have supported the Australian Commonwealth Government with the Victorian Aged Care Crisis, supplied antigen tests and quarantine protocols to the Howard Springs’ Returning Travellers Quarantine Facility, and assisted the Queensland Department of Health with mass vaccinations throughout South-East Queensland. During the Victorian flood crisis in October 2022 we provided senior incident managers and logistics coordinators to assist a number of Victorian Health regional health services who had been flood inundated and their workforces affected.

We can deploy expert teams of health and incident management responders quickly, including senior response personnel, source and supply the necessary equipment, and provide emergency operations centre design, build and management. In short, we can provide support to enable others to do their jobs or provide a complete managed service.

Recent events showed how underprepared many organisations and industry sectors were in being able to respond to a crisis on the scale that the COVID-19 pandemic presented. Our elderly populations, many of whom live in residential facilities, were the most affected, accounting for the majority of deaths around the globe. In addition, the unprecedented flood events of 2022 impacted many health services and aged care facilities, many of which had not had to manage a disaster on this scale before.

Respond Global has been heavily involved in the COVID-19 response since early 2020. We supported the coordination of the Commonwealth response to the Victorian Aged Care Crisis and were selected by the Australian Government to lead the implementation of rapid antigen testing in aged care facilities in Greater Sydney during the mass outbreak in August 2021, providing facilities with training and protocols in using the tests. The program extended on the trial conducted at Whiddon in Glenfield, also led by Respond Global, the outcome of which gave aged care workers more confidence to go to work knowing that they were not putting others at risk. Our support included providing testing protocols, training staff in their use, and virtual walkthroughs to set up testing stations.

We were also the implementation partner for the Department of Health in implementing rapid antigen testing regimes and training across 1200 aged care facilities nationally.

The resources industry is a major contributor to the Australian economy, with 240,000 people employed directly and 1.1 million jobs dependent on multiple sectors that directly and indirectly support the industry. It is therefore imperative that resource companies be supported in their efforts to remain operational during times when their businesses could be disrupted. Business continuity planning has played a major role in assisting entities to continue through the global pandemic, as well as a range of localised parallel business interruptions such as cyclones, fires and floods.

A clear, comprehensive and well tested business continuity plan, that includes health crisis and disaster management mitigation, response and recovery strategies, will give any business the best chance of overcoming a major business interruption. Respond Global has supported the likes of Woodside Energy, Rio Tinto and Beach Energy – we can provide expert reviews of and advice on Medical Emergency Response Plans (MERPs) in addition to offering training programs and simulation design and execution to prepare organisations to respond to a health crisis when and if it happens.

Respond Global’s team of emergency response experts bring a blend of global clinical, public health and emergency management experience, gained at all levels of government response, to our passion for enabling strong local and national health responses. We have worked with governmental agencies and UN bodies in health response to major health crises and humanitarian disasters as well as with private companies in the manufacturing, finance, resources and travel industry. No other health emergency and disaster response group can provide such a breadth of medical and public health crisis support.

Our work has been at both the strategic policy level and at the operational field level responding to health crises. This gives us a unique advantage in translating global, national and state health policies into practical and implementable plans, procedures, exercises and response. During the COVID-19 pandemic we have supported the Australian Commonwealth Government with the Victorian Aged Care Crisis, supplied antigen tests and quarantine protocols to the Howard Springs’ Returning Travellers Quarantine Facility, and assisted the Queensland Department of Health with mass vaccinations throughout South-East Queensland. During the Victorian flood crisis in October 2022 we provided senior incident managers and logistics coordinators to assist a number of Victorian Health regional health services who had been flood inundated and their workforces affected.

Keeping essential food and agricultural production and manufacturing entities moving during times of health crisis is essential for ensuring ongoing food production and supply. Respond Global has assisted a number of sectors within the food and agriculture industry, particularly in the areas of infection prevention and control, and workforce quarantine and vaccination management.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic we worked closely with the Australian Meat Processor Association (AMPC) and a number of their high profile members including Australian Country Choice (ACC), and MC Herd, to protect red meat processors and their essential workforces. This support included the production of comprehensive training materials and information products for all staff, scenario-based pressure testing, an infectious disease outbreak response management plan and response framework, implementation of testing and vaccination programs, and ongoing 24/7 support.

The international cruise industry was brought to a standstill by the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020. Literally overnight thousands of cruise ships were set at anchor across the seas and their parent companies halted operations, throwing the travel plans of millions of cruise-loyal passengers into disarray.

To date, Respond Global has supported one of Australia’s leading small expeditionary cruise operators, Coral Expeditions, to be the first to return to COVID-Safe operations, and we supported a number of others to do the same, including P&O Cruises Australia, Aurora Expeditions and Ponant. Our support included working with the relevant authorities and government departments to allow vessels to return to Australian waters. In addition, we worked closly with the Australasian Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA) to inform their COVID-Safe protocols.

Further afield, Dr Ian Norton remains part of Europe’s MSC Cruises’ Bue Ribbon COVID-19 Expert Panel, providing infectious disease management advice on an ongoing basis.

For businesses and the industries in which they operate, being able to enact business continuity plans in times of crises in health is imperative to allow organisations to continue their operations, to avoid economic loss and ultimately minimise the impact of the lives of their workforces due to furloughing. We can help businesses to create business continuity programs if they don’t exist, or refine those that do. We can pressure test plans and protocols to gauge an organisation’s readiness and ability to respond, if and when they need to, design and execute simulations of any size, and offer training in areas where it is needed. We can review and develop medical emergency response plans (MERPs) and provide after-action reviews post-incident. We have assisted Colin Biggers & Paisley, Grant Thornton, Maddocks, and numerous other organisations to navigate the complexities of health crisis response in today’s modern workplaces, including providing ongoing advice on the COVID-19 and influenza landscapes.

Don’t wait until it’s too late – protect your reputation, your brand and your employees today.

The education sector faced massive challenges during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, with staff and students across the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors being sent home as lockdowns were enforced. Universities, which rely on international students for a large part of their income and who were now unable to travel to Australia, were hardest hit with campuses becoming ghost towns overnight.

The Australian National University (ANU) was one of the first in Australia to engage an infectious disease response expert to assess how they could safely return staff and students to campus when permitted. Respond Global conducted comprehensive campus reviews of teaching, research and accommodation areas and provided recommendations about the implementation of a COVID-Safe plan, detailing response protocols at all levels of the University. To test the readiness of staff to respond to an outbreak we conducted a simulation exercise on-campus.

COVID-19 profoundly affected the global tourism industry. Visitors have changed the way they think, the way they live and the way they travel. Uncertainty has become the new norm, for now, for both ourselves and visitors. But with the right knowledge, structures and supports in place businesses, tourism authorities and communities can continue to safely and profitably do what they do best; looking after their visitors.

National tourism authorities and individual businesses had to make decisions in response to high-level guidance and directives, that had a direct impact at the height of the pandemic. While Government guidelines on post-COVID-19 safety measures were useful, they not only needed to be adapted to local and business level contexts but be viewed through a ‘practical lens’ to make them functional and realistic to be easily implemented.

Respond Global can assist your tourism businesses and authorities to operate in line with ongoing COVID-19 precautions, including support for implementing health screening and testing protocols. We can help re-establish brand trust, to protect the health and safety of your employees and guests and to prepare for possible future public health situations.