On Thursday 3 March 2022, public hospitals moved to ‘red’ under the System Alert and Response (SAR) framework and new directions came into effect to support the transition to Level 2 Public Health and Social Measures.
This will impact on the ability of hospitals to accept visitors into their facilities.
No visitors will be allowed to enter the facility unless they are an ‘essential’ visitor.
An ‘essential visitor’ includes someone who is a:
- birth partner
- nominated parent, guardian or carer of a child or person with a disability
- support person for someone who is critically ill (this would include spouses, partners and other significant others, where appropriate).
Essential visitors are required to show proof of vaccination before visiting a hospital (case-by-case exemption will be considered); will be expected to undertake screening and risk assessment before entry and wear a surgical mask.
These measures are necessary while we have very high case numbers to ensure that we protect staff and vulnerable patients from COVID-19.
Please respect our front-line workers who have been asked to enforce these measures and understand that the measures are to protect everyone in the community.
If staff at a health service ask you to leave because you are not ‘essential’, please respect this as a direction and leave as requested.
Our health care workers and front-line staff are working hard to protect lives and restore health through this period of high cases, let’s help them to help us.
Dr Andrew Robertson
Chief Health Officer
