Covid-19 coronavirus: Sweeping changes in Bay hospitals for virus response

Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) incident controller Bronwyn Anstis is leading the Covid-19 response. Photo / Supplied

The woman at the helm of Bay of Plenty District Health Board's Covid-19 response says people can be confident in their planning and preparations.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) incident controller Bronwyn Anstis said "we're seeing the very best of our people in this situation".

"People are going above and beyond and we've seen the results of that in terms of planning and preparedness as a health system across the Bay of Plenty."

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Planning for the BOPDHB's Covid-19 response began back in early January.

This intensified as the threat developed and on March 16, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated.

Anstis said there were a number of key actions and activities which had happened during the planning phase to help the health system in its preparedness.

These included reducing all non-essential elective surgeries and outpatient appointments, moving to alternative ways of providing patient care and a lockdown environment to reduce visitor flow.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

The DHB had also established Community Based Assessment Centres (CBACs), allowing people to be assessed for potential COVID-19 symptoms away from hospital and GP environments.

It had also reached out to 18 iwi in the Bay, and Māori in general, to ensure good access to healthcare services, especially for rural and remote communities.

The EOC was the BOPDHB's mechanism for running its response to major operations and was last activated for the Whakaari White Island eruption.

"Within the EOC we have several key roles or functions. It's an informational pyramid and a multitude of teams and services feed into these key roles, who in turn report to the Incident Controller to help ensure everything is coordinated across our health services – hospital and community," Antis said.

She said the DHB wanted to pay tribute to the work which was ongoing in the Bay's broader healthcare system to keep the community safe.