State Health Emergency Response Plan - SHERP

The State Health Emergency Response Plan (SHERP) is a whole-of-health response to emergencies - including mass casualty incidents, complex trauma events, mass gatherings, and other incidents impacting the health of all Victorians.

The plan provides all necessary information to enable an effective and coordinated health and medical response.

On 1 December 2009, a revised version of SHERP came into effect with some key changes, including:

the description of Functional Command, and how it relates to health response;
the relationship between the Emergency Management Team (EMT) and the Incident Controller in the development of the incident strategy;
SHERP as a health planning framework for public events and mass gatherings;
the management of emergencies across a number of sites (sectors);
the escalation of the Health Incident Management Team across incident levels;
a new scene management model that includes the management of people with no obvious physical injuries but who require emergency relief, including psychological first aid; and
a new General Practice sub-plan and Field Primary Care sub-plan.

Medical Practitioners Guidance Note

In July 2011, the Department of Health released a new guidance note for the General Practice sub-plan of SHERP. This document provides medical practitioners with information about their possible role in the immediate response to a large scale emergency, either within their practice or at the scene of an emergency. It also outlines the communication and activation arrangements for involving medical practitioners.

You can download a copy of the new guidance note by clicking on the link below: