Coronavirus: Lack of personal protective gear ‘a worry’ for health workers

Personal protective equipment, government modelling and the Ruby Princess nightmare dominated debate on Monday night’s Q&A.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen on Monday's Q&A on ABC television.

Personal protective equipment, government modelling and the Ruby Princess nightmare dominated debate on Monday night’s Q&A on ABC television.

Emergency doctor Stephen Parnis kicked off the discussion by saying the biggest concern in Australia among healthcare workers was running out of personal protective gear.

“I spoke to a number of colleagues around the country before coming on to the program and I have to say we’re all very worried about the provision of personal protective equipment,” Dr Parnis said.

“I’ve seen department directors going to Bunnings and I’ve seen people look and hope they might have contacts overseas.”

General practitioner Vyom Sharma said he was concerned the government is not doing enough when it comes to the appropriate supply of protective gear.

“It was only a couple of weeks ago it granted an exemption to get in other masks from overseas and I wonder what other things are not being pulled because we don’t have transparency on this.”

Host Hamish Macdonald pressed medical researcher and Liberal MP Katie Allen on the time it is taking for the federal government to release the full scope of modelling to the public and medical workers.

In response, Ms Allen said it was her understanding the national cabinet was meeting to discuss the current modelling and release it to the public on Tuesday.

“I do hear people are concerned about modelling, about the future, and I think that now that the situation has stabilised, now is the time for people to have a look and see where to next from here,” she said.

“It’s been a very rapidly changing scenario and I think it’s very appropriate that people know the data and know what the government is doing to deal with this rapidly moving pandemic.”

However, opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen argued the government should have been releasing updated modelling from the beginning of the crisis.

“If we want Australian people to trust governments, we need to trust the Australian people with the full information that’s available,” Mr Bowen said.

“It would have been much better if the modelling was released in real time from the beginning of this crisis. If the government did that – not tomorrow but right from the beginning – there would have been much more trust.”

Ms Allen said the curve has flattened considerably in Australia because of strict border control measures and social distancing restrictions.

“We’re hitting a plateau. We need to have a look and see how long that plateau period will be before we can safely say we’re starting to come down the other side. If the curve is lower it’s likely we’ll come out of it more quickly,” she said.

Later, the panellists tackled the huge demand for nurses, doctors, and medical professionals, discussing whether the government should consider employing migrant nurses who cannot practise in Australia due to visa requirements.

“The chief nurse has been looking at the qualification levels of international nurses who might be in Australia who have not currently been recognised and we support that work,” Mr Bowen said.

“We made the suggestion to the government last week that they waive the visa requirements on working holiday visa holders who are nurses.”

Ms Allen said Australian healthcare facilities had a long way to go before reaching capacity, assuring her fellow panellists the government will come through with the PPE equipment they promised.

“We’re very careful about looking at ventilator capacity,” she said.

“We have 2200 ventilators across Australia. We are using the private healthcare system to increase that to 4500 and have been working very hard to prepare for 7500 ventilators.”

Ms Allen said they were bringing more nurses into the workforce to ensure intensive-care beds have 24-hour care.

“We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” she said.

The Ruby Princess debacle came under fire as Mr Bowen slammed the decision to allow passengers to disembark as “gobsmacking negligence”.

“There has to be a full explanation to the Australian people about how the Border Force let that happen. It is unacceptable,” he said.

However, Mr Bowen said that regardless of the Ruby Princess there is an obligation on the rest of the public “to do their bit” and take the pressure off the frontline healthcare workers.

Respiratory physician Lucy Morgan, who cares for COVID-19 patients at Sydney’s Nepean Hospital, said the decision to allow passengers off the virus-ridden liner was a stark reminder of the potential for coronavirus to have catastrophic effects on members of the community if it was left unchecked.

“As the disease progresses or as the illness progresses, the patient needs more and more oxygen to help their lungs to work properly,” she said.

“As this COVID-19 infection progresses, all sorts of parts of the body start to shut down. So people’s hearts don’t work properly. Their blood pressure doesn’t stay up. Their kidneys don’t work properly.”

Dr Morgan said the number of nursing interventions was enormous once a patient reaches a critical stage.

Dr Parnis noted that the most fundamental aspects of being a health worker was to “journey with the patient” and to offer them “human contact” to ease fears.

“These are the sorts of things that we should always and will always give people, whether they are mildly unwell or whether they are nearing the end of their life,” he said.