Dear Health Education and Training Institute NSW (HETI),

My name is Mel. I have a few questions regarding the mandatory training modules that were made available to aviation staff as part of their induction to NSW health; primarily as contact tracers.

I would like to know the following:

• Were the training modules specifically related to contact tracing or were they
pertaining to the expectations and requirements of working for NSW Health.
• If the modules were specifically focused on the role of a contact tracer, can I
please know the details of the training material.
• Were professionals such as psychologists available to provide training on how to
handle distressing phone calls, distressing reading material, death notifications
etc, and were there any kind of debriefing sessions at the end of every shift.
• I would also like to know how broadly this cohort of staff were utilised in terms of
their tasks ie were they just completing case questionnaires or utilised more
broadly.

Thank you in advance for your assistance it is greatly appreciated.

Kindest regards,
Mel
(Melissa Griffiths)

Hi Ravi,

Thank you for your quick response I really appreciate it.

My first FOI request to the NSW Ministry of Health was to better understand how the aviation staff were initially deployed to NSW Health as Contact Tracers. That, I understand, was through a third-party recruitment agency called Randstad.

What I would like to know more about is their actual training, and, in what way and how broadly they were expected to be utilised.

In their response to my initial FOI request, the NSW Ministry of Health states:

"Contract tracers were provided with an induction to
NSW Health and were required to complete mandatory training modules
facilitated by the Health Education and Training Institute, as required
for all new starters."

Being the training facilitator I thought you would be able to clarify this for me.

Thank you for your time I really appreciate it.

Kind regards,

Melissa Griffiths

Hi Ravi,

Thank you for your response and for passing my request on to the Ministry's GIPA team. I am yet to hear from them. Hopefully their response is not too far away.

Thank you again for your assistance it is very much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Melissa Griffiths

Dear Ravi,

Thank you again for responding to my messages.

Unfortunately that response does not adequately answer my question. If their training was the same as all other contact tracers, I am still left asking the same question. Which is; What were the specifics of that training, what did it entail?? Whichever umbrella of training aviation staff fell under is irrelevant, I am trying to capture what they were taught in order to help them fulfill their duties as contact tracers.

If I need to submit a new FOI request for the specifics of training for ALL contact tracers, then I will do that. I understand you are being given a directive from the ministry and I am sorry if I am making this difficult for you.

Thank you again for your assistance Ravi, I really do appreciate it.

Kind regards,
Mel