Influenza Vaccinations

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What specific action has the minister taken to limit the outbreak of influenza in aged-care facilities, and will the minister advise which 18 aged-care facilities have been put into lockdown due to flu cases?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:26): My immediately past answer directly relates to this because a significant proportion of the vaccines provided to nursing homes are supplied under the National Immunisation Program. I appreciate that there are some residents of nursing homes who are under the age of 65 and, on that basis, would not be eligible for the NIP, but SA Health is a key supplier to nursing homes. They are also a key adviser to nursing homes and SA Health's Communicable Disease Control Branch always stands ready to support nursing homes to respond to outbreaks. I think it is very important to stress that the teams within the nursing homes, as a consequence of commonwealth regulations, are required to have strategies to deal with infectious disease outbreaks.

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: So have you done anything at all?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The honourable member, continuing the approach of other members of the opposition team, continues to provide misleading information. The 18 nursing homes that have locked down are nursing homes that have locked down since 1 January. The member is not able to tell me how many are currently locked down because the Chief Medical Officer wasn't able to provide that information. If the honourable member thinks she has better information than the Chief Medical Officer I would be very surprised.