Cyclone Alfred: Primary healthcare update 2
This information is current as of Tuesday 11 March 2025:
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred made landfall with South East Queensland over the weekend, resulting in destructive winds, isolated heavy rainfall and flash flooding.
All hospitals remain open for emergency care, 24 hours a day. For patients, an alternative to attending an emergency department may be to connect online to the Virtual Emergency Care Service which is open 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week. The Virtual Emergency Care Service has specialist clinicians available to treat a range of emergency conditions virtually. Operating hours will be extended to 24 hours from 8am Thursday 6 March until 10pm Tuesday 11 March 2025.
Further, the Oxley, Logan and South Brisbane Medicare Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) are open and operational.
Metro South Health advises that community centres and clinics have returned to normal operating hours.
The following facilities will be temporarily closed on Tuesday 11 March and will reopen as soon as possible:
To stay across changes to this information, please refer to the Metro South Health services open during severe weather webpage.
For immediate assistance and up-to-date information, please refer to the following resources:
Emergency contacts
Life-threatening emergencies: Phone Triple Zero (000)
Flood or storm assistance (SES): Phone 132 500
Emergency information and disaster updates
Queensland Government Disaster Management: disaster.qld.gov.au
Get Ready Queensland: getready.qld.gov.au
Local Council Disaster Dashboards: Find your local dashboard
Healthcare guidance during the disaster response
Queensland Health: health.qld.gov.au
Open Hospitals: openhospitals.health.qld.gov.au
13 HEALTH: Phone 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84) to speak with a registered nurse to discuss your healthcare concern and get advice on what to do or who to see. Important update: From Saturday 8 March to Monday 24 March 2025, eligible consumers in Queensland can access the Healthdirect GP Helpline 24/7 by calling 13 HEALTH. This service is being provided to help Queensland residents during the ongoing impact of ex-Cyclone Alfred. Consumers are connected to the GP service when their regular GP is unavailable.
Mob Link supports First Nations people living in South East Queensland to link with health and social services: 1800 254 354
Healthdirect’s Service Finder: healthdirect.gov.au/australian-health-services
Mental health support
Lifeline: phone 13 11 14
13 YARN: phone13 92 76 to talk with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter
Medicare Mental Health (Head to Health): phone 1800 595 212 for mental health advice and guidance or visit medicarementalhealth.gov.au.
Is your service availability impacted by Cyclone Alfred?
To help the community find available health services during and after the natural disaster via the healthdirect Service Finder, Brisbane South PHN is helping to ensure the National Health Services Directory (NHSD) is up to date.
There are 3 options for updating your clinic details for the community:
Update your National Health Service Directory (NHSD) listing online at Healthdirect. View the NHSD guide to updating your service’s listing.
If your clinic uses an online appointment booking service, you can update your calendar to reflect changes in availability. This will be reflected via Service Finder.
If you are too busy and unable to action a change in hours, contact Brisbane South PHN on support@bsphn.org.au and we can make the updates to the NHSD on your behalf.
Reporting a cold chain breach?
A cold chain breach (CCB) occurs when the storage temperature deviates outside of the recommended range of between +2° Celsius and +8° Celsius (excludes deviations up to +12° Celsius lasting 15 minutes or less). In the event of a CCB, Vaccination Service Providers should:
Immediately quarantine the affected immunisation products. Do not use them.
Complete a Cold Chain Breach Report Form (PDF 591 kB). The person who noted the breach should complete the form.
Email the completed form to QHIP-ADMIN@health.qld.gov.au. Include ‘COLD CHAIN BREACH’ in the email subject line.
QHIP will respond to your email as soon as possible with advice
Support from Brisbane South PHN
Due to the expected severe weather impacts of ex-Cyclone Alfred, our offices are closed from Thursday, 6 March, with staff working remotely.
Along with the rest of the region, we anticipate some disruptions due to power and communication outages in the coming days. While response times may be affected, we will resume normal operations as soon as it is safe to do so.
For non-urgent enquiries regarding primary health care service continuity, including updating us of your general practice or pharmacy open hours or days during Cyclone Alfred, please contact support@bsphn.org.au.
We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can.
More disaster support resources for general practices
Find helpful tips and information on our disaster readiness pages.
The RACGP has information for GPs in disaster-affected areas.
Brisbane South HealthPathways offers guidance on disaster management in general practice and post-natural disaster health.
Flood and storm support | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care