A new hi-tech purpose-built State Health Coordination Centre is set to open in mid-January, providing 24/7 oversight of the entire health system to improve patient movement and hospital flow.
Co-located at the new SA Ambulance Service Headquarters at Richmond Road, Mile End South, the new centre brings together experienced clinical staff with paramedics, to ensure teams can work collaboratively to identify issues and quickly direct resources where they are needed most.
Supported by expert predictive data and analytics, the centre provides round-the-clock visibility of patient flow across the system, including ambulances, emergency departments, inpatient wards, inter-hospital transports, regional patient repatriation and complex discharges.
Importantly, by combining key data with clinical expertise, the team is able to identify system issues and patterns, enabling a more coordinated approach to statewide patient flow, along with overall system learning and improvements.
The centre first opened in 2023, co-located with the SA Virtual Care Service in Tonsley, and will move to its new purpose-built site at the SA Ambulance Service Precinct this month.
Working closely with SA Ambulance Service and Local Health Networks across the state, the centre's near real-time system flow dashboards support an average of 1,500 views per day, and have supported almost 50,000 patients through the statewide interfacility transfer process. The co-ordinated system ensures patients are safely and efficiently moved between hospitals and health services.
The move to the new purpose-built coordination centre comes as South Australia experienced its highest number of annual flu cases on record, putting extra pressure on our hospitals.
In 2025 there were more than 36,000 cases of flu, compared to 22,936 cases in 2024.
Influenza cases typically peak during winter months, before reducing later in the year. However, South Australia has been experiencing an unseasonal increase in flu notifications, predominantly due to the prevalence of the Influenza A strain – a spike that has been seen across the country.
Latest data shows that in the week ending 27 December there were 465 new flu cases in SA and 51 hospitalisations.
Throughout 2025, there were 3,614 hospitalisations from the flu.
SA has the highest flu vaccination rate of any mainland state in the nation, with 34.9 per cent of the population vaccinated (as at October 2025), a slight increase on the same time in 2024.
Consistent with most other states and territories, and in line with health advice from experts including Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier and the Australian Health Protection Committee (AHPC), SA provides the flu vaccine free to at risk groups including children under 5, people over 65, pregnant women, Aboriginal people and those with underlying health conditions.
It's never too late to be vaccinated against flu and with this recent spike in cases, all South Australians from the age of six months and older should ensure their vaccinations are up to date.
Flu presentations are among factors placing increased pressure on our hospitals, with ambulances spending 3,983 hours ramped outside metro hospitals in December.
There was a 6 per cent increase in overall emergency department presentations across hospitals compared to the same time last year.
There are currently 353 elderly South Australians stuck in metro hospitals and other SA Health sites medically ready for discharge but awaiting a Federal Government aged care bed.
In December, ambulances reached 71.2 per cent of Priority 1 cases in the target timeframe of 8 minutes, compared to only 47.1 per cent in January 2022.
Ambulances reached 57.9 per cent of Priority 2 cases in the target 16-minute timeframe in November, compared to only 36.2 per cent in January 2022.
Full ramping data – including a hospital-by-hospital breakdown – can be found here.
As put by Blair Boyer
We're incredibly pleased that the new State Health Coordination Centre is about to open at its purpose-built location at the new SA Ambulance Service Headquarters.
South Australia is experiencing an unseasonal increase in flu cases which has been putting extra pressure on our hospitals.
The new State Health Coordination Centre will give us 24/7 access to real-time information to best respond to blockages in the system and direct resources where they are most needed, helping to improve patient flow and reduce the bed-block which contributes to ramping.
As put by Advanced Nursing Director, State Health Coordination Centre Operations Lead Natalie Hincksman
The State Health Coordination Centre is an incredible resource to our healthcare system. It allows us to have 24/7 eyes on patient flow, from the community response, to our emergency departments, all the way through to subacute facilities and patient discharge. It allows us to collaborate with hospitals and SAAS providing a more coordinated approach to decisions to improve patient flow.
This comprehensive data allows hospital staff and the SA Ambulance Service to deploy resources where and when they are needed.
