North West Outbreak Independent Review Report

Peter Gutwein,Premier

Today we have released the Report from the Independent Review into the North West COVID outbreak.

The purpose of the Independent Review has been to ensure we fully understand what worked well, and also what improvements can be made, so that we have the best possible systems and practices in place in the event of future outbreaks.

The Report outlines that the situation in the North West could have been considerably worse, were it not for the hard work, skills and sense of responsibility of staff, the Department of Health and State Emergency management personnel.

The Review was also told of the suppliers and businesses who went out of their way to provide additional assistance and support during this time.

To each and every person involved I say thank you.

The Independent Review has provided 37 recommendations, and whilst we’ve already undertaken action against a range of recommendations, the implementation plan will look at what we need to do over coming months.

This work is being supported through our record $9.8 billion investment into hospitals and health system announced in the 2020-21 State Budget, as well as $150 million for our Health preparedness and response provided through the Government’s Social and Economic Support package.

We have committed $3.5 million to strengthen the Emergency Services Operations Centre and $23 million into a Health technology package including modernising the human resources system, as well as $121 million over four years for delivery of a unified, digital Tasmanian Government Radio Network (TasGRN), that will ensure fast and secure communications during emergencies.

We have also provided specific funding to establish rapid response contact tracing capabilities of $3.3 million as well as further allocations to keep Tasmanians safe during COVID-19 including to strengthen our border response and emergency accommodation for health care and frontline workers.

I want to again reiterate my sincere condolences to those who lost loved ones, and to those who have been affected by the North West outbreak.

Tasmania has a proud history of learning from emergencies and this report has provided further learnings that will strengthen our response framework in the future.

Given this, the Government has accepted all recommendations, either fully or in-principle*.

I would like to thank the Independent Reviewer, Greg Melick AO SC, and the Working Group for undertaking the report and providing recommendations, which will now be thoroughly reviewed and an implementation plan developed by the end of January 2021.

A copy of the full report can be found here:

https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/independent_review_of_the_response_to_the_north-west_tasmania_covid-19_outbreak

*Where the Government states in-principle this means we support the intent of the recommendation but it may not be possible to implement it exactly as written.

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