Calls for independent inquiry into medi-hotel fiasco as breach numbers revealed

There are calls for an independent inquiry into the management of SA’s medi-hotels after revelations there have been at least 100 rule breaches in recent months.

The state’s worst coronavirus cluster has widened to include an expatriate couple in official quarantine, triggering an urgent probe into how they fell ill in an medi-hotel and prompting calls for an independent inquiry.

SA Health tests on Tuesday linked the pair to the Parafield cluster’s COVID-19 DNA.

Authorities said there was no wider public risk amid calls for an inquiry.

An urgent testing blitz of all hotel guests and staff at the city’s Peppers Hotel, on Waymouth Street, was under way on Tuesday night.

The dramatic developments came as SA Health figures obtained by The Advertiser reveal more than 100 breaches across the state’s seven medi-hotels in the past two months.

Failings include the wrong use of protective equipment, security failings and “other” secret incidents.

The spike in incidents, an increase on 62 found between April and early September, led to a “small number” of private guards being sacked and other disciplinary action such as counselling. No SA Health official or police officer was involved in any breach and the Government said most breaches were not high risk.

The State Government rejected calls – led by the Opposition and SA Best MP Frank Pangallo – for an independent inquiry into the medi-hotel fiasco that sparked the sixth cluster and last week’s lockdown. But today the Government announced an eight-point crackdown on quarantine procedures, including a new dedicated quarantine facility for positive medi-hotel cases, possibly at the old Wakefield Hospital.

Mr Pangallo says the latest debacle shows a full independent inquiry into the management of our medi-hotels was needed, preferably led by an interstate retired member of the judiciary or eminent QC.

Police outside the Peppers Waymouth medi-hotel where barriers were being set up. Picture: Matt Turner

“This latest figure is outrageous and unacceptable considering what transpired last week. To think there have been so many breaches since September in our medi-hotels makes you question why it was only last week that SA Health decided to impose regular testing of security staff at these sites,” Mr Pangallo said.

He said the inquiry should have been done as soon as the first spike in increases came to light.

“What has the government been doing to ensure the private security firm it is using has been appropriately trained and managed,?” he said.

“I only noticed private security staff stationed outside the Stamford Plaza only started wearing masks last week – except when they were on a smoko break.

“The government might argue the breaches have been minor, however, it only takes one slip-up to create panic, pandemonium and economic pain in our community – as we witnessed last week.”

Authorities were on Tuesday night investigating if the travellers – who arrived from an undisclosed country on November 11 – tested positive after contracting the virus from a worker – initially thought to be a cleaner – at the hotel, the outbreak epicentre. Today it was revealed that after reviewing security footage from Peppers Hotel that a security guard and not a cleaner was the first person infected.

Medical staff and police prepare for a coronavirus testing blitz inside Peppers Hotel. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Police and medical staff around Peppers. Picture Matt Turner.

Medical staff suit up. Picture: Matt Turner.

A significant police presence outside the Peppers hotel. Picture: Matt Turner.

Speaking again publicly hours after revealing she had the “champagne on ice” in the hope the state had avoided a feared second wave, chief public health officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, last night said the inquiry was ongoing amid fears the virus was “even more transmissible than what I had initially thought”.

“Obviously this is very serious, we are taking it very seriously,” she said.

Special genomic testing has linked the married couple, both in their 20s, to the cluster’s “footprint”, after SA Health initially reported them infectious overseas arrivals.

The couple, among 29 cluster patients, was in a stable condition in the Pullman Hotel, Hindmarsh Square.

No other guest will move to another medi-hotel or be required to extend mandatory time in quarantine.

A woman, aged in her 50s – who was among the first of 15 relatives to catch the disease from a “super spreader” family event – was in a stable condition in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Another 4100 people are in quarantine.

Hours earlier she had about when the state was over the cluster: “I haven’t popped the cork on the champagne bottle yet, but the champagne is on ice”. Picture Tait Schmaal.

Professor Nicola Spurrier holds a hastily arranged press conference out the front of the SA Health HQ, on the 24th November, 2020 with Health Minister Stephen Wade standing behind her. Picture: Andrew Hough

SA Health only provided details on breaches such as mobile phone use, listening to music while on duty or miscommunication between staff.

It did not provide a full breakdown.

A spokeswoman said the “vast majority” of security staff related breaches were “low-to-medium risk”.

She said in the past two months officials had safely managed more than 4500 people – more than double the total in its first six months.

“We have also increased the number of medi-hotels in use to cater for an increase in returning Australians,” she said.

Premier Steven Marshall said the “most minor of breaches are logged and anything that needs review, which could be a breach that leads to transmission, is sent directly to (SA Health)”.

“We have got an excellent quality assurance arrangement within our medi-hotels,” he said.

Medical staff and police assemble at Peppers Hotel on Waymouth Street, Picture Matt Turner.

Police and SA Health staff outside Peppers on Tuesday. Picture: Matt Turner

“The fact that we log when somebody looks at their phone or touches their mask should give the people of South Australia confidence that we have a system that is constantly under review.”

The SA Health medi-hotel probe, operating alongside a police lockdown task force and an Australia-wide medical program review, centres on how the virus spread in the CBD facility and if there are any other mystery infectious patients.

But Prof Spurrier refused to provide any inquiry details, the travellers’ country of origin or which workers infected them, until the review ended and its findings publicly released.

Asked if it involved a hotel breach, she replied: “What I can say is that I don’t believe there has been anybody in the wrong room at the wrong time, OK, so I am pretty confident that is not the case.

“But what I will say is this is a sneaky virus. If you are too close to somebody who has got it, you will catch it.

“So please everybody … stay 1.5m away from each other, and I would recommend wearing a mask.

“This is how we are going to be fighting it and it’s really important that you heed me on this.”

Professor Nicola Spurrier walks to the late press briefing with Mr Wade. Picture: Andrew Hough

Asked if medi-hotels – robustly defended by herself, Mr Marshall and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens – had fallen short, she said: “Everybody is disappointed that we have had this outbreak.

“I certainly am. We need to determine how this has been transmitted and then we need to make changes.”

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas, who wants outback medi-hotels, back calls for an independent inquiry.

“We would wholeheartedly support an independent review into the medi-hotel system, the Parafield Cluster and the statewide lockdown, to ensure the government has all the information it needs to keep us safe and minimise economic repercussions,” he said.