Rita Panahi: Locking out health workers in a pandemic defies belief

Millions of Victorians have been under strict lockdown to supposedly save hospitals from being overrun, so why have crucial health workers not been allowed to come home?

More than 19 months into the coronavirus pandemic the Daniel Andrews government has announced the bolstering of the health system with a plan to recruit up to 1000 healthcare workers currently living overseas.

While one welcomes the plan to hire more doctors, nurses and other health professionals to ease pressure on Victoria’s hospital system, two pertinent questions come immediately to mind: Why did the government make this announcement in October 2021, instead of March 2020, and what sort of clown country locks out its own healthcare workers during a pandemic?

On Tuesday Health Minister Martin Foley said the workers would be given every assistance to relocate so they could begin work as soon as possible.

“This group will largely be made up of returning Australians who have wanted to come back to our healthcare workforce,” he said.

Why didn’t both the state and federal government move heaven and earth to facilitate the immediate return of crucial healthcare workers? Picture: Dan Peled

Why didn’t both the state and federal government move heaven and earth to facilitate the immediate return of these crucial workers stranded overseas at the start of the Covid-19 crisis?

It defies belief that more than five million people in Greater Melbourne remain under a strict lockdown to supposedly protect our hospital from being overrun when we have hundreds of willing and able health professionals wanting to return to their home country.

Of course the state government has made other pledges to boost the health system during the pandemic – most notably the announcement of 4000 new ICU beds and the staff needed to operate them – but sadly the collective amnesia that struck premier Andrews and his senior ministers at the Coate hotel quarantine inquiry took hold and Victoria never got the boost in ICU capacity that was promised in April 2020.

Indeed, despite being present at the press conference where the announcement was made and his own office issuing a statement confirming “a massive $1.3bn injection to quickly establish an extra 4000 ICU beds”, the Premier now treats question about the missing beds as some wild conspiracy theory.

To borrow a great quote the Premier may succeed in fooling some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but he cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Unlike members of his crisis cabinet, Victorians are not afflicted with collective amnesia.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist