From fires to floods, South East Queensland is renowned for its weather events during the Summer months.
With this in mind, Metro South's Executive team recently embarked on a strategic Disaster Management exercise to ensure the region is well-prepared.
Metro South Health's Incident Controller Dr Michael Cleary expressed his eagerness about the exercise.
“Strong leadership is critical in disaster situations, especially when our services, staff and communities are affected,” he said.
"Considering Queensland's reputation as the most disaster-prone state in Australia, this exercise was a great opportunity for our Executives to think about disasters," said Dr Cleary.
“During an activation, the Executive Incident Management Group considers the impact of the disaster on Metro South Health facilities, resource allocation, staffing, and service continuity.
“They also prioritise and allocate human, physical, and system resources, establish arrangements with health partner agencies, and develop short and medium-term incident action plans, including recovery strategies.
“It’s especially important to test the command system structure for leadership and decision making in different scenarios.”
The exercise, run by Joanne Dyson, Metro South Health’s Disaster and Emergency Management Coordinator focused on a hypothetical severe cyclone hitting Brisbane, challenging participants to identify priorities and actions to prepare for and respond to this potentially catastrophic event.
“Executives were split into two incident management groups, and presented with various scenarios that could disrupt the health service’s ability to serve the community," Joanne said.
“Learnings from the exercise will be used to enhance Metro South Health's ability to plan, communicate, engage, respond, and recover rapidly from any natural disaster.
“The goal is to ensure uninterrupted service to the Metro South community, regardless of the circumstances,” she said.