The Venue Management Team (VMT) was established in mid-July 2021 to provide public health advice and risk assessment support to a range of venues where a person with COVID-19 had attended. These included construction sites, supermarkets and food manufacturers. The team was established in response to public health units requesting assistance from the Public Health Response Branch (PHRB).
VMT was initially set up rapidly for a two-week period to work through venues requiring assistance, a large proportion of which were construction sites. PHRB assembled a team of 14 staff from Health Infrastructure NSW (including an Executive Director, PSSE Band 2) and the Department of Planning and Environment to work alongside PHRB public health experts and provide the mix of expertise required to assess and assist those venues.
Splintering out high-volume tasks from the core Operations Team into separate teams (the extended Ops concept) enabled expedited scaling up through rapidly engaging and training skilled people in discrete sets of tasks, without them having to be trained in public health. Having public health experts within VMT to provide oversight and advice was crucial. The core Ops Team retained liaison with public health units and venue management for some essential services. Public health units also continued to manage higher-risk venues within their capacity constraints.
As case numbers continued to increase, it became clear that VMT played a critical ongoing role. The workforce strategy adjusted accordingly, sourcing staff for a longer term through existing and new arrangements from other areas of NSW Health (including a Director, HSSE Band 1), other government agencies, recruitment agencies, and other organisations, including universities and research institutes. The team grew to 160 full-time equivalent employees by September 2021. More robust systems and processes for managing the workload and allocation of venues across the public health network were also developed at this time. The inclusion of an occupational physician in the team was essential.
VMT was wound up in mid-February 2022 with functions returning to public health units and PHRB core Ops. During its time in operation, VMT worked in collaboration across public health units and core Ops to directly assist more than 16,000 venues and developed a range of tools to assist businesses in self-managing COVID-19 prevention and control.
Simon Willcox1, Trish Wills1
