Limestone Coast residents are reporting difficulty accessing specialist medical services due to increased COVID restrictions at the Mount Gambier Hospital.

The SE Voice has been contacted by patients who have had their visiting specialists appointments cancelled.

A Limestone Coast Local Health Network spokesperson said local health networks had COVID Status (CoSTAT) protocols in place.

CoSTAT levels are an internal hospital communication system specific to each local health network and are determined by the LHN’s Incident Management Team, as part of South Australia’s COVID-19 Ready Plan.

“Our local health networks have COVID Status (CoSTAT) protocols in place across all health facilities to minimise risk to staff and ensure the continued delivery of safe care to patients,” the spokesperson said.

“Our CoSTAT protocols are designed to determine the necessary actions our hospitals need to take within the hospital based on the level of risk in the community, which can include additional PPE requirements for staff or changes to patient flow through our services.

“At CoSTAT 4, our networks are able to increase capacity to respond to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the community who may need our services and care.

“We will continue to provide healthcare across our hospitals and ensure patients receive the care and treatment they need.

“Under CoSTAT 4, visiting specialists can provide telephone and video consultations, and face to face consultations are facilitated when the specialist considers it to be essential.

“There have been cases where visiting specialists have provided surgery and other essential face to face visits since we moved to CoSTAT 4 on January 5.”