3 years ago
CATASTROPHIC COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE COSTS DAYS IN FIGHT AGAINST COVID AT ST BASIL’S
Julie Collins MP
Extraordinary new evidence has revealed the Morrison Government’s aged care regulator knew about an outbreak of COVID-19 at St Basil’s for four days and failed to inform the Department of Health.
This catastrophic communications failure led to a potentially deadly delay in responding to the outbreak of COVID-19 at St Basil’s.
This revelation directly contradicts evidence given at the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 last week when the Morrison Government, the Department of Health and the regulator all said they were unaware of the outbreak at St Basil’s until the 14 July 2020.
Time and time again the Morrison Government has been warned about information sharing failures between its regulator and the Department of Health but has not acted.
We are now seeing the tragic and avoidable consequences of not properly heeding these warnings.
The Minister for Aged Care must reveal today when he became aware the regulator did have knowledge of the outbreak of COVID-19 at St Basil’s but failed to pass it on.
The Minister for Aged Care must also answer questions about whether he continues to have confidence in the regulator’s ability to deal with tragic outbreaks of COVID-19 in aged care.
We have seen the devastating impact of COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care in Australia and across the globe.
Why was the Morrison Government not better prepared for outbreaks that would impact our nation’s most vulnerable?
Australia’s aged care system was broken before the COVID-19 pandemic and this is only putting extra stress on the system.
The Morrison Government must do better for our most vulnerable older Australians.
The Morrison Government must learn from the past few months and act to prevent further COVID outbreaks in the aged care system.
This catastrophic communications failure led to a potentially deadly delay in responding to the outbreak of COVID-19 at St Basil’s.
This revelation directly contradicts evidence given at the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 last week when the Morrison Government, the Department of Health and the regulator all said they were unaware of the outbreak at St Basil’s until the 14 July 2020.
Time and time again the Morrison Government has been warned about information sharing failures between its regulator and the Department of Health but has not acted.
We are now seeing the tragic and avoidable consequences of not properly heeding these warnings.
The Minister for Aged Care must reveal today when he became aware the regulator did have knowledge of the outbreak of COVID-19 at St Basil’s but failed to pass it on.
The Minister for Aged Care must also answer questions about whether he continues to have confidence in the regulator’s ability to deal with tragic outbreaks of COVID-19 in aged care.
We have seen the devastating impact of COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care in Australia and across the globe.
Why was the Morrison Government not better prepared for outbreaks that would impact our nation’s most vulnerable?
Australia’s aged care system was broken before the COVID-19 pandemic and this is only putting extra stress on the system.
The Morrison Government must do better for our most vulnerable older Australians.
The Morrison Government must learn from the past few months and act to prevent further COVID outbreaks in the aged care system.