Media release – Sarah Courtney, Minister for Health, 18 April 2020
PPE supply in Tasmania
The Tasmanian Government’s number one priority is keeping Tasmanians, including our health care workers, safe and secure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I would like to reassure staff that we have an appropriate level of PPE supplies across all regions of the State, so that our front-line workers can safely respond to patients’ clinical needs.
Additionally, PPE is a critical focus of the Health Emergency Coordination Centre, which will drive state-wide coordination of a new COVID-19 PPE model.
Further, the Department of Health will be introducing additional PPE instruction, audit and supply management roles within North West hospitals, as a pilot, with learnings to be monitored by our THS Emergency Operations Centre team and shared across our Northern and Southern hospitals.
The Department is also working with existing and new suppliers to ensure we continue to have an adequate supply. We are working closely with the Commonwealth to draw from the national stockpile where needed and have confidence in our level of supply.
We have also placed orders worth an additional $26 million over normal supply levels to prepare for pandemic PPE use.
Our priority is to provide all of our health staff with a safe working environment and to ensure they have the PPE sufficient to fight this pandemic.
Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Health spokesperson, 18 April 2020
North West PPE Allegations Must Be Investigated
Allegations raised in The Saturday Paper about the origins of the North West’s COVID-19 outbreak are serious. If correct, they would be major breach of standard infection control practice.
The Minister for Health must investigate these claims as a matter of urgency. Tasmanians need to know if there is any truth in them.
The allegations are serious. They claim there was an agency directive to hospital staff to collect single-use disposable P2 masks, not for their safe disposal but for “decontamination and reuse”.
Other allegations include directions to staff to ration PPE, to use inadequate PPE for theatre operations, and to reuse masks after spraying them with methylated spirits overnight.
Allegations of agency staff or hospital management recommending the reuse of PPE and refusing, or being unable, to provide proper equipment would be disturbing under any circumstance, let alone in the midst of a pandemic.
The Greens welcome the Health Minister’s release of information on current PPE stocks in Tasmania. Clear communication is always important. In a pandemic, it is critical.
We need absolute transparency about what caused the COVID-19 outbreak in the North West, so the public can have confidence in the Tasmanian healthcare system.
These serious allegations relating to Department PPE policy require a rigorous investigation. Tasmanians need an assurance from the Health Minister this has not occurred in the North West, or anywhere else in the State.
