Supporting our customers through COVID-19
Since the onset of the COVID-19, we’ve continued to respond to the ongoing demands of the pandemic by providing support to our customers where they needed it the most. To do this, we developed and implemented internal business continuity plans to ensure we could continue to provide our core services, as well as deliver additional COVID-related projects, such as:
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic required public health contact tracers to undertake rapid tracing and surveillance in order to contain an outbreak. It was identified the contact tracing team would require a better tool than the system that was in place at the start of the pandemic. This largely manual, paper-based system relied heavily on users switching between multiple platforms and SMS communication via individual mobile phones.
Following a request by the Department of Health (DoH) and Metropolitan Communicable Disease Control (MCDC), we carried out a rapid assessment of the requirements for a new COVID-19 contact tracing solution to identify a suitable replacement. In consultation with the MCDC, we undertook a procurement and comprehensive evaluation process, before developing and implementing the Public Health Operations COVID-19 Unified Systems (PHOCUS). This digital contact-tracing system functions as a medical record and enables symptoms monitoring via automated SMS and email messages to COVID-19 cases and their contacts.
We had a significant role in the establishment of community and hospital COVID-19 vaccination clinics as part of the state’s vaccination program. This included supporting our customers to set up these clinics at short notice and typically within a few hours. Our people collaborated to ensure every clinic had access to:
- the nursing workforce to administer vaccinations
- IT devices and systems to record vaccinations and make bookings for second doses
- access and training on the use of the VaccinateWA booking system
- ·vaccination consumables and other medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE).
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WA Government made it mandatory from 5 December 2020 for particular businesses to maintain a contact register to improve the State’s contact tracing capabilities. In preparation for the implementation of this policy, we were approached by the State Government in November 2020 to develop an easy and secure process for businesses and venue operators to maintain a digital contact register. We worked in partnership with the Department of Health, the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC), Small Business Development Corporation and a range of industry stakeholders to scope the requirements and to develop a suitable solution.
In just three weeks, we procured, developed and implemented the SafeWA digital contact registration system one week before mandatory contact registers came into effect in WA. This enabled businesses and venue operators to easily create a QR code for individuals to quickly and securely check-in via the SafeWA app.
Following the successful development and implementation of SafeWA, the Department of Health (DoH) engaged us in December 2020 to develop an ICT solution to support the state’s COVID-19 vaccination management processes and workflows.
Following an extensive scoping exercise, we procured and rapidly developed VaccinateWA in preparation for the state’s COVID-19 vaccination program. VaccinateWA was launched on 5 February 2021 in time to support the commencement of state-run COVID-19 vaccination clinics on 22 February 2021.
As a result of our efforts, our customers have received an uninterrupted supply of quality PPE and medical consumables during surging demand and restricted supply. This has supported frontline healthcare workers and the public sector service delivery workforce (police, communities, ambulance, aged care etc.) more broadly. These supplies have enabled critical community members to work safely and with the right supplies which provided a huge confidence boost to the WA public sector.
We also continue to work hard to secure large supplies of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to support the State’s COVID-19 response in a highly competitive market. The RAT sourcing activities required a significant increase in logistics and warehousing capacity, including dedicated temperature-controlled storage for RATs. This involved working with the Department of Health, PathWest, Department of Finance, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Communities and Department of Treasury to fund, source, distribute and warehouse RATs for the Western Australian community under the McGowan Government Free RAT Program. The WA Free RAT Program was an Australian first, providing an initial 5.3 million free RATs to more than one million households across the State.
We supported the WA health system’s response to the COVID-19 situation by shifting from office-based working to a mobile workforce with the capability to work from anywhere. This included the ability to hold virtual meetings and clinical video consultations. We supported a virtual workforce by:
- supporting the continuation of a virtual desktop solution to enable more than 18,000 WA health system employees to work remotely
- doubling the WA health system’s network capacity to support the increased demand for video conferencing
- enabling cloud storage and real-time collaboration tools.
We worked closely with the Department of Health and Health Service Providers (HSPs) on a range of strategies to rapidly recruit, deploy and onboard a highly skilled contingency workforce. This helped to ensure the WA health system remains well-positioned to respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Expansion of our COVID-19 recruitment activity to support metropolitan and regional Western Australia included:
- recruitment and onboarding of a multi-disciplinary reserve workforce to respond to COVID outbreaks in WA (e.g. contact tracing and COVID-19 testers)
- Hotel Quarantine Program
- State-run COVID-19 testing clinics
- Community COVID-19 vaccination clinics
- COVID-19 positions within WA public hospitals.