Government paid $18m for unvaccinated health workers

Queensland Health spent a staggering $195 million on rapid antigen tests that the department no longer has a use for, a new report has revealed, as the total department costs for Covid-19 reached nearly $1.4 billion.

The Queensland government has written off a staggering $195 million spent on unused and expiring rapid Covid-19 tests, a report from the Auditor-General revealed.

Queensland Audit Office also revealed Queensland Health forked out $18 million for workers to stay on leave after refusing to be vaccinated while the state’s health department’s total costs related to the pandemic reached nearly $1.4 billion.

The department splashed the extraordinary sum on testing kits as demand surged amid the Omicron outbreak in early 2022.

“Queensland Health procured a large supply of RATs, based on the expectation they would be required by students and teachers at schools,” Auditor-General Brendan Worrall wrote in his report.

“However, government strategy changed to only require RATs in schools for teachers and students who develop Covid-19 symptoms.”

During the pandemic, the department’s expenses for medical supplies more than doubled from $220.6 million to $426.4 million “to mitigate the risks of global supply shortages”, and increased the amount it expected to lose from “obsolete inventory” to $267.3 million.

The pressure on the ambulance service soared in last financial year, according to a new report from the Queensland Audit Office. Picture: Mary-Ann Shapcott

When quizzed about the eye-watering expense for rapid tests that are now sitting idle, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath shifted blame to the Morrison government’s health response which she said “failed Queensland and failed Australians”.

“When we did open the borders, they were not ready for it,” she said. “They did not have rapid antigen tests available for the broader community.

“Queensland saved the Commonwealth budget millions and millions of dollars when you compare us to Victoria and NSW because we kept our borders closed and because we listened to health advice and kept Covid out until we vaccinated our community.”

After the Queensland government introduced a directive for all health service employees to be vaccinated by the end of October 2021, staff who were stood down due to not being vaccinated were able to access paid special leave.

A total of 1700 employees accessed this leave between November 2021 and June 2022, at an approximate cost of $18 million.

According to Mr Worrall, the expense was not significant in terms of the department’s entire workforce but he questioned Queensland Health — and the public service more broadly — for failing to apply a flexible arrangement during this extraordinary period.

“A more agile public service could have reallocated these staff to other public sector entities that needed them rather than keeping them on its payroll while on suspension,” Mr Worrall wrote in the report.

He cited a previous Queensland Audit Office report into the public service: “To become a more dynamic and responsive organisation, the public sector needs flexible work practices that meet both organisational and employee needs, including ways of moving employees more easily across the sector.”

“This issue also created significant administrative burden for the department and HHSs in assessing the claims of staff seeking a vaccination exemption.”

Originally published as Government paid $18m for unvaccinated health workers