SA Health decisions made during the pandemic were ‘at odds’ with Covid directions, state Ombudsman says

Decisions made by SA Health during the pandemic left people feeling “overwhelmed, confused and uncertain about what they could and could not do”, the state’s Ombudsman has said.

Decisions made by SA Health during the pandemic were “at odds” with Covid directions, which could be “extremely confusing and difficult to understand”, the state’s Ombudsman says.

In an overview of the department’s response to the pandemic, Ombudsman Wayne Lines said in normal circumstances such lack of compliance with directions would have warranted an investigation.

He noted that the directions imposed “significant intrusions on individual rights to be taken without ordinary parliamentary consideration and oversight”.

Mr Lines said people who contacted his office reported that frequent changes to the directions left them feeling “overwhelmed, confused and uncertain about what they could and could not do on any given day”.

“Further adding to the uncertainty was that the directions were numerous, were frequently modified, highly legalistic and, at times, extremely confusing and difficult to understand,” he said.

South Australian Ombudsman Wayne Lines pictured in Adelaide, 2018. Picture: Tait Schmaal.

Mr Lines said his own legal officers had difficulties interpreting Covid-19 directions and reconciling decisions made by the department with the relevant direction in place at the time.

“On occasions, decisions made by the department seemed at odds with the direction in place,” he said.

“It became apparent to my office early in the pandemic that staff of the department did not always understand the complexities of the directions and were not always basing decisions on them.”

He wrote that, in other circumstances, he would have considered that it was in the public interest to conduct an investigation into the lack of compliance with the directions.

“However, given the risk to public health and rapidly changing circumstances at the time, I decided not to,” he said.

Under the state’s major emergency declaration, which was ended by the state government in May, the state co-ordinator had the power to issue directions such as lockdowns, capacity restrictions and quarantine orders in order to contain the spread of Covid-19.

In his report, which is addressed to SA Health chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence, Mr Lines said up until June 2021 his office had received a total of 241 complaints about government actions in response to Covid-19 – but by June 2022 that number had increased to 1105.

Of those, 908 were about the actions of SA Health.

Mr Lines said he generally took the view that the complaints were not appropriate for him to deal with because they related to decisions which were “reasonably open to the department to make based on an assessment of risk to public health”.

He also acknowledged the “highly effective public health response to the pandemic in South Australia”, as well as the dedication and effort of the staff of the department – particularly those on the front line.

In a statement, a SA Health spokeswoman said the department would consider the recommendations of the Ombudsman.

“SA Health acknowledges the concerns raised by the Ombudsman regarding the Department for Health and Wellbeing’s response to the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.

“Since 2020, governments across the globe were required to make important and swift decisions in order to protect the health and wellbeing of their communities.

“We are proud of our staff and thank them for their tireless efforts during this unprecedented public health emergency, and also acknowledge that many South Australians experienced difficult and frustrating situations as we moved through different stages of our public health response.”