South Island establishes regular EMIS 'comms checks'

Graeme McColl, the Ministry of Health Regional Emergency Management Advisor for the South Island has established within his region a regular Friday afternoon slot, where agencies can log onto a dedicated WebEOC training incident and practice logging significant events and allocating tasks to other agencies.

Participation is voluntary and can involve as many or as few staff from participating agencies as available. The current 'incident' involves malicious damage to health infrastructure and will allow a range of tasks and reports to be completed over the next couple of months.

The purpose of the session is similar to a weekly radio or sat-phone check and is intended to familiarise staff with the log on procedure, control panel and the boards and forms available rather than to exercise decision making. Each session will only last an hour or so and can be supported by WebEOC administrators via teleconference if required [apologies for last Friday, I was unavailable having concussed myself during my mountain bike commute to work].

This is an extremely easy training event to set up for other regions and areas, allowing EOC staff to participate from their desks or even work from home and compliments the existing sat-phone and Video Teleconference testing regimes recently established.

Well done to all agencies participating!