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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-03 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Health Workers

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:57): Is the minister able to give figures in terms of how many of the additional workers that were deployed, the stand-by army, have been retained by SA Health? They could then obviously assist in the vaccination program.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:57): What I might undertake to clarify with the SA Health workforce is: to what extent are they going to rely on the current record in relation to the vaccination pool? I am certainly happy to seek figures in terms of the level of engagement with the first pool.

It goes without saying that we didn't engage the first pool anywhere near to the extent that we feared that we would. It is a great tribute to the leadership of the public health team here in South Australia and the cooperation of the South Australian community with that effort that to this point we have not been faced with the challenges of other jurisdictions.

What has become abundantly clear in the last year is that the first wave isn't always the worst wave. Obviously, in those early days when we were looking at the need to increase ICU beds and ventilators, we were seeing hospitals in Italy under huge stress, and we have seen that again. Even countries that are very familiar to us are experiencing very significant COVID impacts. Perhaps the country which is closest to my family is the United Kingdom, and to see current waves which, as I understand it, are only just coming off their highest is very distressing.

In terms of where we are as of today, it is tragic to reflect that if South Australia had had the death rate of the United Kingdom through COVID-19, instead of having lost four people we would have lost 2,400 people. It is true to say that when we were mustering that stand-by army in the first half of last year we feared that they would be facing waves of COVID and a hospital system response that has caused huge distress in our sister countries.

I think it is really important that we do not for a day become complacent because many of the countries that travelled with us in the first year of the pandemic and did well are now experiencing significant setbacks; Japan is one that comes to mind readily. It is really important that we maintain a balanced public health response. It is quite appropriate that we look forward to the vaccination program, but it is very important that we do not take the foot off the accelerator in terms of the general public health measures: social distancing, personal hygiene and the like.

Just as we did in the first wave, we need to be taking those measures out of respect for our health workforce. We do not want doctors, nurses, midwives or other health workers in Australia to have to go through what their colleagues overseas have done. They are working very hard to keep us safe and we greatly appreciate that. Now is the time to make sure that we do everything we can to make sure that South Australia stays safe and strong and that health workers can continue to provide care for us and not be faced with the tragic COVID waves that we have seen overseas.

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