The Andrews government has been doing a woeful job. Failure to mandate the supply and use of effective PPE in hospitals and care facilities has been a gross breech of planning and governance. This from Thursday 9 July ABC News (Rachel Clayton):
"Key points:
- *Staff from hospitals, aged care and disability are reporting ongoing shortages of personal protective equipment at work
- *Unions are worried the shortages are putting their members at risk of contracting the virus and passing it onto patients
- *It comes as a growing number of people linked to hospital and aged care facilities in Victoria contract coronavirus
"On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) named six aged care facilities where workers tested positive for the virus."Cases are also growing within hospitals; Northern Health, which includes the Northern Hospital in Epping and Broadmeadows Hospital, has confirmed 14 staff tested positive to coronavirus over the last nine days.
Austin Health, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Brunswick Private Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital, The Alfred Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital have all had staff or patients contract the virus in the last week."
This is unforgivable! The same thing happened at Burnie public and private hospitals in Tasmania months ago: the grossly inadequate provision and lack of mandating use of PPE where needed.
In Burnie frontline staff were told by management they were not being issue with masks etc. that they actually had in storage as they wanted to keep them in reserve!
The Andrews government had ample time to learn from this debacle but apparently learnt nothing!
Shame!
