Fentiman bursts bubble of healthcare workers after Supreme Court Covid mandate ruling

Legal advice is being sought by healthcare workers desperate to return to the frontline after being stood down over Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

Hundreds of Queensland healthcare workers are desperate to return to the frontline after being stood down over Queensland Health’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate but despite crippling workforce shortages they claim they continue to face barriers to re-employment.

Nurses, midwives, doctors and other healthcare workers are hopeful that the Supreme Court’s ruling that the mandate was “unlawful” will help them get back in uniform, the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland claims. The court action involved police officers and paramedics.

“Doctors should not be in court but seeing patients and saving lives. The cost, both to those fighting the mandates and the public expense incurred in enforcing them, must be thoroughly examined,” Kara Thomas, secretary of the Australian Medical Professionals’ Society said.

“It’s high time we prioritise the wellbeing of patients using ethical evidence-based medicine over political based directives.”

Kara Thomas.

The NPAQ has exclusively revealed to The Courier-Mail the results of their health professionals survey, which closes this week.

More than 94 per cent of 317 medics from across the state revealed they wanted to return to their jobs. Many were keen to work in rural and regional Queensland and many had more than 30 years of experience.

“The NPAQ has over 400 stayed human rights complaints pending test cases and we are hopeful that the Supreme Court outcome will prove to be favourable for our other cases,” Ella Leach NPAQ state secretary said.

“Approximately 3000 healthcare workers are currently absent from our public healthcare system due to the vaccine direction from September 2021. Nurses have continued to be terminated after the revocation of the mandate in September 2023, some as recently as two weeks go.

“On March 1 the NPAQ is sending Health Minister, Shannon Fentiman, a list of hundreds of these healthcare workers prepared to return to work immediately.”

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman pictured on Tuesday. Picture: Brendan Radke

The NPAQ claims one of the biggest barriers to re-employment is that those who were terminated have a misconduct black mark on their resumes.

The association is seeking legal advice following the court’s shock ruling.

Ms Fentiman said the government was still considering the decision handed down by the Supreme Court but affirmed the judgement, handed down by Justice Martin, was a “very technical decision” around employment contracts and the way the heads of Queensland Police and Queensland Ambulance made directions to employees.

“(Justice Martin) did not find that mandatory Covid vaccinations were contrary to the Human Rights Act. He found that the limit on human rights was justified because of the pandemic,” Ms Fentiman said.

“It was a decision about how directions were issued, not the fact that mandatory Covid vaccinations were contrary to human rights.”

Ms Fentiman said the directives of QPS and QAS were “very different” to health directives meted out by Queensland Health, and anyone who had left the health service before the mandate being overturned was “absolutely welcome” to return.