Greg Hunt accused of passing coronavirus buck as staff walk

A row has erupted between NSW and federal health ministers after a coronavirus outbreak at a Sydney aged-care caused a staff exodus.

NSW Health has sent medical workers to Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Sydney, where an aged-care worker and resident tested positive to the coronavirus. Picture: Toby Zerna

A furious row has erupted over emergency coronavirus funding between the NSW and federal health ministers after an outbreak at a Sydney aged-care facility caused an exodus of staff who refused­ to turn up for work.

The Australian has learned that aged-care workers collect­ively called in sick to BaptistCare’s Dorothy Henderson Lodge at Macquarie Park, in Sydney’s northwest, on Wednesday after the death of a 95-year-old resident and the infection of three people, including an aged-care worker, an 82-year-old male resident and a female resident in her 70s.

Tests on the elderly woman who died confirmed she was was positive for the virus, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant revealed late on Wednesday night.

NSW Health confirmed six more coronavirus cases across Sydney, bringing the total number of positive infections in the state to 22. As of Wednesday midnight, there were a total of 52 cases nationally and more than 93,000 global­ly. The pathogen has spread to 78 countries and killed almost 3200 people.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told The Australian his department was forced to make a snap decision and cobble together a workforce of nursing staff to care for the elderly residents once it was clear existing staff wouldn’t be turning up because of their concerns about infection.

He asked the federal government at a COAG meeting last week to pay for such expenses so the money wouldn’t be drawn from local health district budgets.

The commonwealth indicated its willingness to pay for these ad hoc expenses, which fall outside traditional funding agreements.

Mr Hazzard also wrote to federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in late January calling for snap funding arrangements, having expected challenges, such as that which faced BaptistCare on Wednesday, to emerge.

The Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park, part of the Baptist Care Aged Care. Picture: Toby Zerna

But Mr Hunt’s office deflected the request, in a letter replying to Mr Hazzard on Wednesday afternoon. According to Mr Hazzard, he was told to seek additional funding provisions through the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, which oversees commonwealth payments to public hospitals.

Mr Hazzard described the step as a “convoluted oversight process” that wasn’t nimble enough to answer urgent challenges on the ground. “Any state minister and state health department is now on the frontline of a war with corona­virus and decisions are having to be taken expeditiously and strateg­ically in the interests of patients­,” he said. “Just this afternoon, NSW Health has had to agree to fund NSW Health staff in to a nursing home that has had some corona­virus issues and its staff have become­,­ for whatever reason, unavailabl­e. We need certainty of financial help, not ­bureaucratic hindrance.”

Further instances of immediate funding “outside the normal scope” of commonwealth agreements will almost certainly arise, he said, adding: “NSW taxpayers shouldn’t be out of pocket because we’re kicking money in to what should be a federal responsibility.”

Mr Hazzard said he wanted a pool of reserve funding to be provided­ to the state so it could be drawn upon to pay for such out-of-scope requests.

A spokesman for Mr Hunt said the federal government had respond­ed “quickly and constructively” to the request and would continue “to focus on patient care and containment with the states”.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has called for more government assistance to ensure aged care facilities are prepared to battle an outbreak of coronavirus among residents. “We’re calling on the government and providers to provide a registered nurse working around the clock in aged care facilities,” ANMF’s Assistant Federal Secretary Lori-Anne Sharp told Seven’s Sunrise on Thursday morning.

“We know that there are not enough registered nurses working in nursing homes — in fact some don’t have a nurse working around the clock. If facilities are understaffed already to meet the basic needs of residents then they won’t be equipped to deal with a coronavirus pandemic.”

Aged Care Industry Association CEO Luke Westenberg has sought to reassure concerned aged care workers, saying protective gear will be supplied to ensure workers remain safe.

“We have been working closely with the Commonwealth and State departments of Health to ensure the protective equipment and care resources are available,” he told Nine’s Today on Thursday.

Mr Westenberg also advised anyone feeling ill to avoid visiting aged care facilities.

“If you are feeling unwell, don’t visit and aged-care facility until you feel better, you know you are not going to bring anything in,” he said.

On Wednesday, Mr Hazzard described the aged-care worker at the ­BaptistCare facility as a “much loved” member of staff in her 50s who had not recently travelled outside Australia.

Her diagnosis is the latest in a string of local transmissions to people who have not caught the virus by visiting at-risk nations.

Kerry Chant, NSW Chief Health Officer, said she was satisfied appropriate steps had been taken to protect staff, visitors and residents on the premises, and there was no need to lock down the entire facility.

Some staff turned up to work on Wednesday but with trepidation. “We didn’t even get any information,” said Swathi Eppala­gudam, who works in the kitchen, which was locked by infectio­n-control experts.

With each positive case detected — the numbers are rising each day — an exhaustive process begins: officials must work backwards to find anyone who may have been put at risk. This can take many days to complete.

In NSW, officials are tracking 37 patients who had direct contact with a 53-year-old doctor at Ryde Hospital, one of the first people to catch the coronavirus through local transmission.

Another 30 clinicians­ and 24 nurses are being sought for the same reason.

In Tasmania, a man with corona­virus broke self-isola­tion to grocery shop on the way home from being tested at hospital, the state’s public health director said.

NT Health said in a statement that a 52-year-old man tested positive to COVID-19 on Wednesday night, in the first case of coronavirus for the territory.

“The man only recently arrived in Darwin via Sydney and has had limited contact with the local community,” a statement said.

The tourist flew to Darwin from Sydney and is being treated at the Royal Darwin Hospital in isolation.

The department said it was attempting to contact those who may have been in contact with the man.

With Lachlan Mofffet Gray, Angelica Snowden