The Department of Health and Families (DHF) are responsible for three key functional groups in the Northern Territory's emergency management arrangements. A fourth functional group, on behalf of the Australian Government, has the responsibility to coordinate a National and International response for the recovery of patients, principally within the APEC region.
Please see our Key Responsibilities for further information.
NT All Hazards Approach
The Northern Territory Government is prepared to deal with emergencies and disasters through the Northern Territory Disasters Act, which is the responsibility of the Police Fire and Emergency Services Minister.
Northern Territory emergency arrangements are based upon an 'All Hazards' approach and is implemented in stages starting at the local level and moving to a regional and then an NT or national response, depending on the extent of a disaster.
NT All Hazards Emergency Management Arrangements (Adobe PDF document - 386KB)
DHF Emergency Management Plan
The Department of Health and Families Emergency Management Plan (DHF Emergency Management Plan) is complementary to and consistent with the Northern Territory All Hazards Emergency Management Arrangements. The plan is predominantly a pre-hospital response plan for major emergencies or disasters, mass casualty emergencies or major disease outbreaks, providing information to enable effective and coordinated medical, public health and welfare response.
The DHF Emergency Management Plan is prepared under the auspices of the Disasters Act and the Medical Services Act. The latter Act advises that the Chief Executive (CE) of the Department of Health and Families is responsible for the management of medical services and hospitals in the NT.
NT DHF Emergency Management Plan (Adobe PDF document - 159KB)