Health Emergency Response
Who is CPRG
Canterbury Primary Response Group (CPRG) is a collaborative group of health professionals and provider organisations tasked by Te Whatu Ora Health NZ to lead the Waitaha Canterbury district’s primary care emergency planning, response and recovery. CPRG meets regularly and issues updates to primary care providers as well as communicates with Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) and other relevant organisations in Canterbury.
A Canterbury-wide health response was planned in 2005 when the district turned its attention to the Avian Influenza threat. This was exercised in full when H1N1 Swine Flu arrived in New Zealand in late April 2009. Dr Phil Schroeder, nurse leader Kelly Robertson, strategist David Rosevear (and later on, Graeme McColl) and team led the primary health response in Canterbury where there was widespread use of flu centres (Community-based Assessment Centres, or CBACs) to both treat and protect the Canterbury population.
In 2010 it was recognized that further emergency planning was required for primary health in the event of other emergencies or natural disasters. Dr Schroeder and the Canterbury Primary Response Group were called to lead the primary health response and recovery following the February 22, 2011 earthquake that devastated Christchurch.
Since then CPRG has supported many other emergency responses and led the development of a comprehensive set of plans that would be implemented in the event of a future emergency and to help contribute to a whole-of-health response should it be required. The CPRG Emergency Plan can be found here. An A4 flyer presenting the CPRG organisation can be found here.
Our aim
CPRG’s aim:
- To support Canterbury general practice and community pharmacy to continue to provide healthcare services to their communities during and after emergency events.
This will be achieved by:
- Promoting readiness, resilience and recovery planning to minimise the impact of an emergency event affecting primary healthcare.
- Monitoring the hazardscape and communicating potential risks to primary healthcare providers and key partners.
- Establishing a collaborative and coordinated emergency primary health care response, contributing to a whole-of-health emergency response.
- Considering equity to drive every aspect of support to primary healthcare, including delivery of emergency services and maintenance of essential business-as-usual services during emergency and recovery periods.
The CPRG team
Canterbury Primary Response Group consists of a core group of clinicians and managers to support the planning and implementation of an emergency response in Canterbury. In an emergency event, the wider Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) may be activated. The EOC is supported by Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, Pegasus Health, Waitaha Primary Health PHO, and Christchurch PHO.
Hanna Sorby
Primary Care Emergency Management Lead
Hanna joins CPRG from the facilitator role in Emergency Care Coordination Team at Te Whatu Ora, and brings a master’s degree in Disaster, Risk and Resilience to the Primary Care EM Lead. She has also worked in primary care for a number of years. She is passionate about building resilience in our community and ensuring we have strong relationships in place across the emergency response sector. The role supports emergency planning by CPRG on behalf of the district’s general practice and community pharmacy sector, and facilitates interaction between the three PHOs (Christchurch PHO, Pegasus Health, and Waitaha Primary Health), Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora Waitaha (previously the Canterbury District Health Board), Civil Defence and other emergency agencies.
Dr Tom Bowden
CPRG Clinical Lead
Tom is a GP at Promed in St Albans. He has been in Christchurch for two years having previously worked in Auckland. Tom’s emergency planning background is from the British Army where he was a medical officer in the regular and reserve forces for 14 years. Here he helped plan for and lead military and civilian responses to major incidents. He hopes to help in a small way to build resilience in the primary care system which is the foundation of our healthcare system.
Deborah Callahan
CPRG Advisor
Deborah has been officially working in emergency management since 2011 but she was part of earlier event responses such as H1N1. Her role in CPRG evolved after the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake response where she was Logistics manager. Since then she has been supporting the development of an organised primary care-led Emergency Operations Centre. In the COVID-19 pandemic Deborah took on the role of EOC Manager then was seconded to the role of Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora Transalpine Emergency Management and Business Continuity Manager. While on secondment, Martin Carrell took on the role of CPRG Emergency Response Manager and successfully filled that role until his resignation in January 2024. Deborah is now in the role of CPRG Advisor to support the team.
Bill Eschenbach
Rural Liaison
Bill provides a strong rural perspective to CPRG. As Chief Executive of Waitaha Primary Health PHO, Bill has extensive emergency planning, response and recovery experience. He brings strong cross-system linkages and rural primary care knowledge.
What – or who – is the Primary Emergency Operations Centre (EOC)?
CPRG is responsible for activating, or assembling, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), which is the team of people on the end of the emails and phones whose aim is to help make sure general practice and community pharmacy are able to look after their patients in an emergency event.
What is an emergency? An emergency may be a natural or man-made event that suddenly or significantly disrupts the care and treatment of patients; it may change or increase demand for our health services. It may have no warning, such as an earthquake, or come with prior warning, e.g. a pandemic.
The Primary EOC sits within a structure of other EOCs (such as Burwood Hospital, Christchurch Hospital, etc.), under the umbrella of Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora Canterbury Emergency Operations Centre, all with the objective of managing the emergency response for the Canterbury health system. EOCs are based on the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS). More information on CIMS can be found here: https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/resources/coordinated-incident-management-system-cims-third-edition/