THE region’s medical chief has flagged potential duplication of services with the establishment of a satellite COVID-19 command centre in Mount Gambier and instead supported the expansion of the current health-based incident management team.
Earlier this week, South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announced the establishment of a remote command centre to enable a coordinated effort between government agencies at Limestone Coast border checkpoints.
Limestone Coast Local Health Network executive director of medical services Dr Elaine Pretorius said while the development of the cross-agency management framework was still in its infancy, she hoped it would not be set up in tandem with health.
“We have an incident management team at the hospital and our preference would be to expand the team to include agencies such as police and the state’s ambulance service rather than setting up a second centre,” she said.
“The team is a largely health directed command centre and we hope we can expand it to strengthen the communication with emergency services.”
Dr Pretorius said currently the incident management team met daily, but was intending to increase its meeting hours and bring in other
agencies.
“We had a meeting and SA Health and the deputy state controller were with us and started to give us advice,” she
said.
“Ideally we would like to have police and strengthen the relationship with border control, South Australian Ambulance Service, some of the local government agencies and representatives from primary health care.”
Speaking at the Princes Highway checkpoint on Tusesday, Police Commissioner and Emergency Director Grant Stevens said the decision to establish the centre was necessary in the current circumstances.
“It gives us the ability to operate more closely and in a more coordinated way with health staff, the ADF and police and we are rolling that out as we speak,” he said.
“By building the satellite capability … it will enhance our approach and make sure the people on the border checkpoints are well-
supported.”
