Top medical authorities are concerned a failure to introduce nationally consistent Covid-19 vaccination policies has left New South Wales healthcare workers such as GPs and some private health providers free to continue working unvaccinated.
NSW introduced laws requiring healthcare workers to have had at least one Covid vaccination by 30 September, but the mandate covers only NSW Health employees and doctors and nurses in private hospitals. Other health workers, such as GPs and other specialist doctors working in non-hospital settings, remain exempt.
The exemptions have created uncertainty for private healthcare providers. It’s a live issue for Chiron Weber, the business manager at the Mullumbimby Comprehensive Health Centre on the NSW north coast.
Mullumbimby, known for its alternative lifestyle, has emerged as a haven for vaccine hesitancy since the Covid rollout began. Most of the staff at the privately operated medical centre have been vaccinated, but there is no requirement for them to do so, and Weber said there had been holdouts.
This week he was informed that one of his staff, who treats some patients in the public system through subsidised dental care, will no longer be able to do so.
“So it will have some impact on us, yes,” he said.
“We haven’t made a direct mandate or anything else. A very large proportion of staff are vaccinated [but] there are some who aren’t and who we believe do not want to be, so what we’re potentially looking at is going down the path of rapid antigen testing.
“It’s a tricky one as an employer and honestly I would be calling on a body like Ahpra [the Australian Health Practitioner Agency] or the state or federal governments to be the ones to make the call on what should be occurring and not leave it up to small businesses to do their dirty work.”
NSW Health said the inconsistencies related to its reach. It can mandate vaccines for public and private hospital staff because of the overlap between the two systems, but GPs and dentists, among others, remain within the remit of the federal government.
Last week, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee released a statement recommending a blanket approach to mandates to include private provider facilities, such as GPs, private nurse offices and consulting offices, pharmacies and private pathology centres, but national cabinet has yet to agree on the proposal.
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A number of peak medical authorities agree it is necessary, pointing to glaring inconsistencies in the way state health departments have introduced mandates for health workers.
In August, the Australian Private Hospitals Association called on national cabinet to adopt an Australia-wide position on vaccination mandates for hospital staff to help achieve “full vaccination of this essential workforce”.
Two months later, the situation has not improved. Michael Roff, the chief executive of the APHA, said that while state mandates covered most staff, there was a “potential for people to fall through the gaps”.
Roff pointed to the example of Queensland, where mandates had been introduced in the public hospital system, but not the private.
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“This makes no sense when we know that staff routinely work across both systems,” he said.
“A clear, national approach, based on health advice from Australia’s chief medical officers, would provide the whole healthcare sector with a benchmark for who should be vaccinated, by what date and allow certainty for all jurisdictions that health workers are safe.”
The Australian Medical Association agrees. Its president, Dr Omar Khorshid, has also called for vaccine mandates to be made consistent nationally, arguing legal protection should be given to healthcare employers.
“Most healthcare providers in Australia are small businesses that don’t have the time or resources needed to navigate complex work health and safety laws. We need to make it easier for them to be able to mandate vaccination, which is the best way to protect their staff and patients,” he said.
