Tasmanians
should be given a clearer picture of the impact of the government’s COVID
vaccine mandate across both the private and public health service.
Shadow
Health Minister Anita Dow said although the Gutwein Government had revealed 170
public health staff had now been stood down with a view to being terminated,
the effect on the private health system needed to be made clear.
“The
vaccine mandate rightly applied to all health workers across the public and
private systems but it’s concerning that the Minister Jeremy Rockliff has not
provided an update on how many private health workers have been affected,” Ms
Dow said.
“We
do know that according to Mr Rockliff about 170 Tasmanian health workers will
now have action taken against them to terminate their employment but we do not
know if that is limited to the public sector and we really need to understand
what impact that is going to have on critical health services.
“When
the government introduced the mandate on an over-burdened system that is
already in crisis, Mr Rockliff should have been well across what the impact
would look like and done everything in his power to minimise that impact.
“What
we haven’t seen from this government is an approach that involved working with
staff to perhaps work through some of that reluctance to address some of the
concerns they might have had in order to minimise the impact.
“The fact is this will affect a system already in crisis. The government know only 19 per cent of patients presenting with life threatening illnesses at the Royal Hobart Hospital Emergency Department and only 38 per cent at the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department are seen on time and more than 10,770 Tasmanians are languishing on the elective surgery waiting list.”
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Health Minister
