Complexity Theory in health and social care Assessment Answer

Introduction

The epidemic affected numerous people in the United States, killing thousands of people. According to estimates from the World Health Organization, there have been 5,047,652 confirmed fatalities so far, with 249,743,428 covid-19 verified cases (WHO, 2021). The number of infections and fatalities worldwide has decreased since the mass immunization program was implemented. Yet as a nation, we are not yet secure. Those who have declined vaccinations are impeding the fight against the illness. People are still losing their lives to illness in the US and other countries. Because of the widespread use of the COVID-19 vaccination, fewer people are dying and getting sick. The key concern is how to guarantee that individuals are informed about COVID-19 and receive vaccinations.

This study will examine the factors that led to the failure of the strategy and offer recommendations for how it may be improved moving forwards. The complexity and necessity for resilience in the healthcare system have been underlined by the COVID-19 research (WHO, 2021). There may be a connection between the failure of the COVID-19 national vaccination rollout plan and shifts in vaccine recommendations, vaccine shortages, and difficulties in disseminating age-related vaccine advice via information technology (Wright et al., 2022).

Discussion

The global spread of the COVID-19 disease has reached even the most remote areas. Several vaccines were created rapidly by scientists in an effort to halt the spread. Yet, immunisation and vaccines have been linked to a wide range of problems. Equitable access to effective and safe immunizations is crucial for controlling and finally eradicating the COVID-19 epidemic (MacIntyre et al., 2019). Healthcare professionals, local groups including community healthcare organizations, and the community are among the primary stakeholders in this situation, along with the federal, state, and municipal governments. The major stakeholders are government entities due to their role in vaccine procurement and the provision of resources that would ensure the immunization of the people in NSW. Three more significant parties, in this case, are the healthcare professionals. COVID-19 patients receive the necessary care from medical professionals, particularly nurses. Also, it is these medical professionals that provide immunizations to the patients. Local community groups are also important stakeholders because they advise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee on vaccination-related issues in the community, such as in densely populated areas. Community health centers like NACCHO and SSOs, as well as community health centers run by Indigenous people like the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, are further examples. The NSW indigenous population is also a key player because they are the ones who will be receiving the vaccine (Edwards et al., 2021). The general public has a significant influence on the healthcare system in their capacity as patients.

What went wrong?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted immunizations its seal of approval. The Australian federal government is responsible for acquiring these doses, as well as for their safe transportation, storage, and distribution throughout the country's provinces and territories. The direction offered advice supplied by technical and medical professionals directs the government's technique of prioritizing. Medical experts believe that people of ATSI descent are at a larger risk of acquiring COVID-19 and developing serious diseases as a result, hence they have been designated as a priority category (Beeching et al., 2020). It was discovered that the risk was related to one's ability to get medical treatment as well as social elements that affect one's health. As a result, the Australian government created a vaccination rollout program and classified the ATSI individuals as being in phases 1b and 2a, respectively.

The system's failure was primarily caused by changes in the vaccination age requirement, vaccine shortages, and a lack of effective communication strategies with the native population. It is conceivable to label the system as being non-robust; the goal of this exercise is to offer alternative upgrades that might strengthen the system's resilience. Formerly established at age fifty-five, the age range for which COVID-19 vaccines are advised has been extended to sixty years and older. AstraZeneca produces the main vaccine used in the community vaccination programme.

The Australian federal government is in charge of acquiring vaccinations that have been authorised by the World Health Organization, as well as ensuring their fair distribution, safe administration, and storage and transportation of doses. Governmental prioritising is based on advice from technical and medical experts. Because of medical advice that they have a higher risk of contracting and developing serious diseases from COVID-19, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been designated as a priority population. According to research, the risk is linked to social determinants of health and access to medical treatment. As a participant in the vaccine programme, Pfizer has been added after AstraZeneca. The age requirement for the vaccination priority has been decreased as a result of the low rates of COVID-19 immunisation among indigenous people in New South Wales. Given this issue, it is obvious that the planning phase of resilient systems was completed successfully (Wright et al., 2022). To meet its vaccination goals for members of minority groups, the government had a clear vision, purpose, and objectives. Nevertheless, system changes, including a reduction in the recommended age for vaccine administration, influenced the operations stage.

Covid-19 Vaccine aversion was associated with originally low vaccination rates among indigenous people, aside from changes in the age at which immunisations are advised. The populace appeared to favour the vaccine produced by Pfizer over the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, and the ambiguity surrounding the different vaccine types added to the challenges. Since they altered the plan for introducing vaccinations, the government was influenced by the changes in vaccination guidelines. Poor vaccination rates across the nation, especially in New South Wales, demonstrated this. The local population was badly impacted as the virus spread more quickly due to inequitable vaccination policies in the region (Wang et al., 2021). What the government thought it would be able to handle, which could be regarded as work as intended, was not successful. However, the majority of people in NSW are older than sixty, despite the advances, and the vaccination rate is still very low.

Despite a successfully documented vaccination deployment strategy, the actual implementation was slow and has remained so. Western New South Wales Aboriginal community, as well as the government, local hospitals, community non-profits, and the general public, have all been affected by this issue. Governments are responsible for solving problems like vaccine shortages. Vaccine shortages are the responsibility of the federal government, which is responsible for ensuring enough supplies. Unfortunately, neither the state nor the local governments were able to convince the federal government to give sufficient immunisations in the area. The shortages also have an impact on the medical professionals who must administer the vaccinations.

Planning Hierarchy

On October 20, 2020, the COVID-19 vaccination programme implementation committee was established to start planning the state's vaccine distribution. It is headed by the NSW Chief Health Officer (CHO). The Australian and New South Wales governments worked together to create a New South Wales implementation plan in December 2020, and the Australian government approved it in January 2021 (Audit Office, 2022). NSW Health need information from the Australian Government to complete its implementation strategies. The NSW Vaccination Strategy Committee's meeting minutes reveal that before finalising their plans, the states and territories awaited replies from the Australian government. Evaluation of Australia's COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) revealed that the Department of Health and Aged Care's.

Due to a lack of planning, rollout plans were not adequately coordinated with different states and territories (Audit Office, 2022). Locations for the initial round of vaccinations, as well as information on personnel, training, vaccine administration, vaccine surveillance, and outreach efforts, may be found in the NSW COVID-19 Vaccination Program Implementation Plan (released in January 2021). The management of vaccination centres is split between the federal government, individual states, and local communities according to the Plan. Once the Australian government announced its COVID-19 vaccination policy (Figure 1) in November 2020, NSW Health quickly released an implementation plan. The New South Wales Chief Health Officer has scheduled the start of the COVID-19 immunisation campaign for October 20, 2020. (Audit Office, 2022). In December 2020, the Australian and NSW governments formulated an implementation strategy for New South Wales, which was subsequently approved by the Australian government in January 2021. Before finalising its implementation plans, NSW Health spoke with the Australian government for guidance. The states and territories were waiting for replies from the Australian government before finalising their plans, as evidenced by the minutes of the NSW Vaccination Strategy Committee. The Australian National Audit Office conducted an audit of the country's COVID-19 vaccination rollout (ANAO).

Rollout plans were not effectively coordinated with individual states and territories due to a lack of forethought. The first vaccination sites, personnel and training needs, vaccine management, vaccine monitoring, and communication methods are all laid out in the NSW COVID-19 Vaccination Program Implementation Plan (Audit Office, 2022). The Plan divides responsibilities for managing immunisation centres into three groups: federal, state, and community. NSW Health published its implementation plan soon after the Australian government's COVID-19 vaccine policy was announced in November 2020 as shown in the figure below.

Figure: Planning the vaccine rollout (Audit office, 2022)

How the Federal Government and ATAGI could enhance their pandemic vaccine planning process?

Authorities and leaders from for-profit and non-profit organisations, as well as influential parties and individuals, must work together if the epidemic is to be defeated and its negative effects mitigated. Trust building with citizens has been essential in both decision-making and communication about the pandemic in Australia, where the success of health treatments has been a central factor in both. The majority of Australians have complied with the suggested restrictions and procedures, including quarantining in hotels, enforcing lockdowns, mandating mask use, and conducting rapid diagnostic tests (Borriello et al., 2021). This approach, while not flawless, was effective in reducing the initial outbreak rate. A significant part of Australia's rejoinder has been the country's capacity to create a combined national retort while allowing for local decision-making and autonomy and the sharing of lessons learned. As the epidemic progresses, more and more individuals seem to embrace the government's ever-changing restrictions and suggestions. The public seems to accept the government's altering demands and suggestions as the epidemic progresses, but they want greater clarity and consistency in communications explaining the changes.

To get the majority of Australians on board with getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the federal government and ATAGI must launch a website to combat the spread of misinformation (Borys, 2021). Also, the campaign's operational authority may hire well-known celebrities or actresses, prominent people, or notable sportsmen to disseminate information or serve as vaccination role models to boost social media involvement. Promoting the "polio vaccination" in the 1950s with the name "Elvis Presley," for instance (Lang, 2021). In addition, medical professionals including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists should confidently inform patients and the public about the efficacy of preventative measures like masks, bed nets, condoms, and vaccines against COVID-19. The most successful public health messages, it is believed, are action-oriented, yet most animated explainer films focus instead on passively imparting information (Wang et al., 2019). Ads might encourage people to take advantage of the availability of masks and vaccinations by highlighting actions like donning a mask when visiting a vaccination distribution station, speaking with a doctor, or viewing informational materials. Government campaigns may be slow to adjust to new information because of delays in the creation of new policies (Choiseul et al., 2021). Hence, it is essential to prepare in advance to respond swiftly to events and to explain any potential side effects or safety issues that may arise as a result of the immunisation. To further foster confidence, it is recommended that government agencies regularly and openly provide safety data to the public. It is possible to identify spreading falsehoods and disinformation using social media monitoring. Communication information and methods may be disseminated through the use of this method, often known as "social listening." It is possible to identify and stop the spread of rumours if word about them gets out.

Conclusion

The global spread of the COVID-19 virus has reached even the most remote corners of the globe. The Australian government vaccinated the public of New South Wales as part of an effort to shield 9 Covid-19 at-risk populations. Nevertheless, the plan did not work out and was not implemented as planned. The key elements that led to the breakdown of the system were shifts in the minimum age for vaccination, immunisation shortages, and an absence of adequate tools to communicate these shifts to the indigenous people. The system as a whole was not resilient.

References

Audit Office. (2022). New South Wales COVID-19 vaccine rollout. https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/our-work/reports/new-south-wales-covid-19-vaccine-rollout

Beeching, N. J., Fletcher, T. E., & Beadsworth, M. B. (2020). Covid-19: testing times. Bmj, 369. https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1403.full

Borriello, A., Master, D., Pellegrini, A., & Rose, J. M. (2021). Preferences for a COVID-19 vaccine in Australia. Vaccine, 39(3), 473-479. https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3986/2/4/40

Choiseul, J. C., Emmerson, P. J., Eslanloo Pereira, T., Hosseinalipour, S. M., & Hasselgård-Rowe, J. (2021). What can be learned from the early stages of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in Australia: a case study. Epidemiologia, 2(4), 587-607. https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3986/2/4/40

Edwards, B., Biddle, N., Gray, M., & Sollis, K. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance: Correlates in a nationally representative longitudinal survey of the Australian population. PloS one, 16(3), e0248892. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248892

Lang, D. M. (2021). What a Dime Can Buy You. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, 9(7), 2669-2671. https://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(21)00494-3/fulltext

MacIntyre, C. R., Costantino, V., Trent, M., & MacIntyre, C. R. (2019). Modelling of COVID-19 vaccination strategies and herd immunity, in scenarios of. Epidemiologic reviews, 41, 13-27. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X21005016

Wang, B., Nolan, R., & Marshall, H. (2021). COVID-19 immunisation, willingness to be vaccinated and vaccination strategies to improve vaccine uptake in Australia. Vaccines, 9(12), 1467. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/12/1467

Wang, Y., McKee, M., Torbica, A., & Stuckler, D. (2019). Systematic literature review on the spread of health-related misinformation on social media. Social science & medicine, 240, 112552. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619305465

WHO. (2021). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) – World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Wright, M., Hoffman, R., Petrozzi, M. J., & Wise, S. (2022). General practice experiences of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout: lessons for primary care reform. Australian Health Review, 46(5), 595-604. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363656373_General_practice_experiences_of_Australia's_COVID-19_vaccine_rollout_lessons_for_primary_care_reform

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