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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-14 Daily Xml
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Winter Demand Management Plan

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:08): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Given the unprecedented number of flu cases this season, when will the government be releasing this year's winter demand management plan?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:09): The government has already released a number of elements of its winter demand management plan, and we will be making further announcements in relation to what is happening both at the LHN level and the statewide level. But the honourable member links the influenza outbreaks with the winter demand plan. I think two events this year highlight the need for us to see influenza as a whole-of-year event.

There is significant discussion amongst clinicians as to what extent the 2018 influenza season had concluded before the 2019 season started. This government is a very strong supporter of immunisation, as demonstrated by the world-leading meningococcal B vaccination program. Thankfully, most vaccination programs are, if you like, lifelong from the time of the administration of the vaccine and ongoing.

The distinctive thing about the influenza vaccine program is that, considering that the influenza contamination constantly changes, we need to have annual influenza vaccination programs. What this year has shown is that not only because of probably the end of the 2018 season and the early start of the 2019 season, we are experiencing influenza-related events well before the normal increase in influenza notifications.

My recollection is that the increase in influenza notifications is about four months earlier than we would have expected. We have already provided information to the house about the number of not only influenza notifications this year but today I mentioned the notifications of nursing home outbreaks. That is from 1 January. Let's be clear that that is not only in recent weeks. The reality is that our hospitals need to be ready for influenza all year round. We expect that the rate of influenza notifications this year will be reflected in additional demand in our hospitals, and I can assure you that SA Health and its networks are actively planning for that. We have already made announcements about winter demand and we will make further announcements in the weeks ahead.

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