Sarah Courtney,Minister for Health
I acknowledge that Tasmanians, and especially our health staff, have a strong interest in understanding what happened in the North West.
Today we released the COVID-19 North West Regional Hospital Outbreak Interim Report, and the Government thanks Dr Veitch and Professor Lawler for undertaking this important work.
This report is vital to develop early epidemiological findings, so that immediate issues can be acted on, in line with best practice in outbreak management.
Nothing is more important to the Tasmanian Government than the safety of our staff and patients, and we are determined to ensure that our health system is as prepared as possible.
COVID-19 is a highly infectious, potentially deadly disease, and Tasmania is not alone in falling victim to a devastating hospital outbreak. It is clear that COVID-19 is unlike any other health threat that we have faced in living memory.
The action we had to take during this outbreak was unprecedented, this included the closure of the North West Regional Hospital, the North West Regional Private and the quarantining of all staff and their families which was an extraordinary effort.
I thank the many people across those hospitals, Ambulance Tasmania, senior clinical staff from other regions, supporting agencies, and, of course, the Mersey Community Hospital who received these patients and the Launceston General Hospital that has been accepting admissions while the hospitals have been closed.
I know many of our staff undertook superhuman efforts that long weekend; an Easter none of us will ever forget.
The Government is committed to ensuring we learn the lessons from the North West outbreak, and we will share these across our health system so that we can all continue to work to do our best to avoid similar outbreaks in the future.
I have confirmed today that I have accepted all of the report’s recommendations, and have now tasked the Secretary with developing an implementation plan.
Some recommendations are being actioned very quickly and are already being implemented, including:
- Enhanced staff screening;
- Improving PPE training and communication for our staff; and
- Clarifying Return to Work processes on a statewide basis.
Others will take longer to progressively plan and implement, as in parallel to this work we are continuing our preparations for this pandemic.
This is vital work, and the learnings that are being made, in real time, need to be assessed, prioritised and actioned in a timely way.
The COVID-19 North West Regional Hospital Outbreak Interim Report has been made available publicly, and can be found here:
I thank our brave, hardworking frontline staff who are doing an unbelievable job caring for and supporting Tasmanians at this challenging time.
We will always ensure that we do everything we can to protect our staff and patients.
Finally, I would like to express my condolences to the families and friends of those who have died as a result of this outbreak. I can assure you, our staff, our patients and the entire Tasmanian community that the outbreak in the NW has only further strengthened my resolve to do everything I can to prepare our state for coronavirus and keep Tasmanians safe.
