Health News at Your Fingertips

Katy Gallagher is asking when the decision was made to prioritise residents over staff, and when people were told about that.

Richard Colbeck doesn’t really have an answer. He says aged care staff are still considered part of 1A.

Gallagher says it was never made public. Colbeck disputes that it was never made public, because he spoke to the sector about it.

Other words used here is that prioritising residents, didn’t mean that staff were not a priority.

(But if you prioritise one group, it stands to reason that there is a shuffling in priorities). A health official says it wasn’t a prioritising issue, it was a ‘pivot’.

And the department pivoted a part of its policy (providing in-care vaccinations to residents, something which is not available to aged care workers, unless there are doses left over) which meant aged care residents were prioritised over aged care workers, except it wasn’t an issue of prioritising one group over another, it was a pivot. And it wasn’t announced, but it was made public.

That clear?

Richard Colbeck says the decision was made to vaccinate residents ahead of staff, because authorities still don’t know if the vaccine protects against transmission of the virus.

So when the advice came down not to vaccinate staff and residents at the same time, the decision was made to prioritise residents.

He says that meant the roll out was “recalibrated”.

But he still can’t say how many aged care workers have been vaccinated

Labor senator Murray Watt asks Richard Colbeck if he is actually “comfortable” with the aged care vaccine roll out.

Colbeck says Watt is verballing him.

Colbeck has said at least twice now, including this morning on ABC RN he is ‘comfortable’ with the vaccine roll out in aged care centres.

The two have a back and forth, which ends with Colbeck saying he stands by what he has said in the media.

Richard Colbeck: Well Senator, one important point is the issue in respect of transmission of the virus with vaccine, which goes back to the point that we were discussing earlier about compulsory vaccination…

Katy Gallagher:

I’m not talking about that, it’s a red herring

Colbeck:

It’s not a red herring, it’s actually important…

Gallagher:

It actually is – you’re using it to focus away from the fact that you have been unable to roll out a vaccination program for residents or staff in aged care,

Colbeck:

You can get your Facebook moment that’s fine.

Richard Colbeck still can’t say how many Victorian aged care staff in centres under federal jurisdiction have been vaccinated.

They just don’t have the data.

They haven’t been collating it.

Liberal senator Dean Smith tries to probe Victoria’s response with professor Paul Kelly.

Kelly says Victorian authorities have done an “extraordinary” job scaling up their testing and response and says he doesn’t have the detail but he believes authorities are “keeping very close to national benchmarks”.

“But not meeting them,” Smith says.

Kelly says he doesn’t have the most recent data, but he thinks it would be close, and says authorities are under intense pressure. He takes it on notice

Just to recap what we have learnt so far in health estimates:

Health officials came without the information of how many aged care residents have been vaccinated.

No one can say how many aged care workers have been vaccinated.

Until recently, operators only needed to voluntarily report their workforce vaccination numbers.

There is no federal vaccine rollout for aged care workers. They can receive a dose if there is extra from the residential rollout, or work it out themselves.

The federal government is now asking for providers to tell them how many aged care workers have been vaccinated in their facilities.

There may be a survey to find out.

Over in Treasury estimates:

Rachel Siewert asks Richard Colbeck whether he has heard reports that aged care workers are being asked by some providers (their bosses) to get vaccinated on their day off.

Colbeck has not heard that.

Greens senator Rachel Siewert can’t understand why the government doesn’t know how many aged care workers have been vaccinated. Richard Colbeck says they are asking providers for that information now, after a previous system of “voluntary reporting”.

Siewert is trying to understand why it wasn’t made mandatory in the first place. Colbeck says they are doing that now.

But until very recently, it was voluntary. And the government can’t say how many aged care workers have received either a first or second vaccination.

So based on the figures the health department has just issued, 44,333 aged care residents in Victoria have received a vaccination. Of those, 25,319 have received their second dose.

It’s 1 June. This was meant to be done by Easter, at the latest.

But officials can’t give a breakdown of how many aged care workers have received their vaccinations.