❓ The Minister for Health provides an update on the WA government's response to COVID-19, detailing increased testing capacity through new collection centres, expanded laboratory facilities, and mobile collection services.
AnsweredQoN 120Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS — HEALTH SYSTEM RESPONSE
120. Ms S.E. WINTON to the Minister for Health:
On behalf of the member for Bunbury, I welcome the Bunbury–Leschenault
Rotary Club, which is in the public gallery with us today.
I refer to the state government's response to
COVID-19.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on how the state government is increasing the testing
capacity for those who may be at risk?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house how the federal government's funding for
further health measures will build on the work already undertaken by WA's
health services?
120. Ms S.E. WINTON to the Minister for Health:
On behalf of the member for Bunbury, I welcome the Bunbury–Leschenault
Rotary Club, which is in the public gallery with us today.
I refer to the state government's response to
COVID-19.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on how the state government is increasing the testing
capacity for those who may be at risk?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house how the federal government's funding for
further health measures will build on the work already undertaken by WA's
health services?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for the question; it is a very important one, because in
addition to the work the McGowan government
is doing to support local businesses and jobs in the community, we are muscling
up in relation to our health services to make sure we are in a position
to meet the challenges that COVID-19 represents. We all know about the work
that goes on in making sure that our doctors and nurses on the front line have
the resources they need to do their jobs. An important element of what they do
is to collect swab samples so that patients can be tested for the coronavirus.
Today
we announced that significant resourcing capacity has been put into our
PathWest facilities to make sure that we have the resources sitting
behind the doctors and nurses to test those patients who are coming in. Today
we announced the establishment of eight metropolitan PathWest collection
centres dedicated exclusively to COVID-19 specimen collection from patients who
have been referred by their general practitioner for testing. This is in
addition to our current 29 regional collection centres that are currently testing for COVID-19. Patients with GP referrals
can attend their nearest collection centre located at either Nedlands, Osborne Park, Mandurah, Belmont, West
Leederville, Kelmscott, Jandakot or Fremantle. As I said, patients from
regional Western Australia with a GP referral will be able to attend one of the
29 collection centres that are already operating. The collection centre
staff will collect samples to test for COVID-19 and provide information about
the straightforward ways that an individual can help to contain the community
spread of the disease. Our collection centres and testing regimes are now
returning results between 48 and 72 hours later, but we cannot underestimate
how much pressure they are under. We are testing specimens from around 750
patients a day, so we have decided to also increase our laboratory capacity. New facilities will be established by
the end of this week at Fiona Stanley Hospital so that by the end of March
we will have a capacity to test over 1 500 specimens a day. That means that we
can continue to get results back to patients as quickly as possible to ensure
that those patients who are at that point probably self-isolating can get back
to work, back to caring for their family and back to normal life. It is
important to make sure that we get that turnaround happening.
In
addition, we know that a lot of people cannot get to a collection centre or a PathWest
laboratory. We are starting to increase our mobile collection services. This
means that those patients who are recommended to PathWest as being immobile for
either physical reasons or having to domicile at home because they do not have
the transport capacity will have a mobile collection service meet them in their
home to collect the specimen. This is really important for those patients who
are domiciled in their homes and are inactive.
We
have implemented three important initiatives. We are establishing eight new
PathWest collection centres dedicated to testing for COVID-19, we are
boosting the number of laboratories that will be able to test for the virus and
we are expanding our mobile COVID-19 teams within PathWest. This comes on top of our COVID-19 clinics that were opened
yesterday and are located at Fiona Stanley Hospital, Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital. Yesterday, around 800 patients came
along and we tested over 400 of those patients who met the criteria of either
having just travelled from overseas, having been exposed to someone with a positive diagnosis or suspecting that they have
been exposed to someone with a positive diagnosis. This is all about muscling
up and putting in place plans to ensure that the WA government is doing
its best to protect people from COVID-19.
thank the member for the question; it is a very important one, because in
addition to the work the McGowan government
is doing to support local businesses and jobs in the community, we are muscling
up in relation to our health services to make sure we are in a position
to meet the challenges that COVID-19 represents. We all know about the work
that goes on in making sure that our doctors and nurses on the front line have
the resources they need to do their jobs. An important element of what they do
is to collect swab samples so that patients can be tested for the coronavirus.
Today
we announced that significant resourcing capacity has been put into our
PathWest facilities to make sure that we have the resources sitting
behind the doctors and nurses to test those patients who are coming in. Today
we announced the establishment of eight metropolitan PathWest collection
centres dedicated exclusively to COVID-19 specimen collection from patients who
have been referred by their general practitioner for testing. This is in
addition to our current 29 regional collection centres that are currently testing for COVID-19. Patients with GP referrals
can attend their nearest collection centre located at either Nedlands, Osborne Park, Mandurah, Belmont, West
Leederville, Kelmscott, Jandakot or Fremantle. As I said, patients from
regional Western Australia with a GP referral will be able to attend one of the
29 collection centres that are already operating. The collection centre
staff will collect samples to test for COVID-19 and provide information about
the straightforward ways that an individual can help to contain the community
spread of the disease. Our collection centres and testing regimes are now
returning results between 48 and 72 hours later, but we cannot underestimate
how much pressure they are under. We are testing specimens from around 750
patients a day, so we have decided to also increase our laboratory capacity. New facilities will be established by
the end of this week at Fiona Stanley Hospital so that by the end of March
we will have a capacity to test over 1 500 specimens a day. That means that we
can continue to get results back to patients as quickly as possible to ensure
that those patients who are at that point probably self-isolating can get back
to work, back to caring for their family and back to normal life. It is
important to make sure that we get that turnaround happening.
In
addition, we know that a lot of people cannot get to a collection centre or a PathWest
laboratory. We are starting to increase our mobile collection services. This
means that those patients who are recommended to PathWest as being immobile for
either physical reasons or having to domicile at home because they do not have
the transport capacity will have a mobile collection service meet them in their
home to collect the specimen. This is really important for those patients who
are domiciled in their homes and are inactive.
We
have implemented three important initiatives. We are establishing eight new
PathWest collection centres dedicated to testing for COVID-19, we are
boosting the number of laboratories that will be able to test for the virus and
we are expanding our mobile COVID-19 teams within PathWest. This comes on top of our COVID-19 clinics that were opened
yesterday and are located at Fiona Stanley Hospital, Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital. Yesterday, around 800 patients came
along and we tested over 400 of those patients who met the criteria of either
having just travelled from overseas, having been exposed to someone with a positive diagnosis or suspecting that they have
been exposed to someone with a positive diagnosis. This is all about muscling
up and putting in place plans to ensure that the WA government is doing
its best to protect people from COVID-19.
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