❓ Question regarding the WA government's response to COVID-19, specifically focusing on testing increases and improved response times for negative results. The Minister provides an update on testing numbers, the introduction of SMS results for negative tests, and criticises the opposition's commentary.
AnsweredQoN 137Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS —
TESTING
137. Ms E. HAMILTON to the Minister for Health:
Before
I begin, I would like to welcome members from the Easybeat Walkers group in my
electorate, who are in the public gallery. On behalf of the member for Southern
River, I acknowledge the students from Caladenia Primary School as well.
I
refer to the state government's response to COVID-19. Can the minister
update the house on the increase in testing for COVID-19 and how Western
Australia's health services are working to improve response times for
those who return a negative test?
TESTING
137. Ms E. HAMILTON to the Minister for Health:
Before
I begin, I would like to welcome members from the Easybeat Walkers group in my
electorate, who are in the public gallery. On behalf of the member for Southern
River, I acknowledge the students from Caladenia Primary School as well.
I
refer to the state government's response to COVID-19. Can the minister
update the house on the increase in testing for COVID-19 and how Western
Australia's health services are working to improve response times for
those who return a negative test?
AnswerView source ↗
I am very pleased to repeat the
advice that I provided to the Parliament earlier today. More than 2 000 tests
have been undertaken in Western Australia and there are no fresh positive
results as of this morning. That is a great outcome and, quite frankly, as we
all know, the longer we can contain and isolate this viral outbreak without
community spread of the virus, the longer we will put off and flatten the peak.
That is an important message that we all must heed, which is why we, as a community,
are in this together.
The Department of Health continues
to tool up to make sure we are ready to assist the community to protect them
from the impacts of the coronavirus, which is why today I made further
announcements about what the government will be doing to make sure we better
serve the community. As of today, we will be providing results via SMS to those
people who receive negative results after having been tested for COVID-19.
Those who have undertaken COVID-19 tests are self-isolating, and it can take
between 48 and 72 hours for them to get those results back, so we want to make
sure we get that information out to them as quickly as possible. We will
provide an SMS service that will give that information out to individuals who
have a negative result, and also provide links and hotlines for where they can
go to get more information about that.
It can take clinicians up to about
20 minutes per phone call to inform patients of a negative test result. By the
end of this month, we will be testing around
1 500 people a week. As members will appreciate, that is a big body of work ,
so we will now be able to do it much more efficiently through the SMS service,
and get those important members of our
workforce back on the beat and make sure they are undertaking other tasks to
continue looking after members of the community. This is an important
development as part of our COVID-19 clinics that we have rolled out this week.
We had almost 800 people attend those clinics yesterday, and over 800 on
Tuesday—so, mercifully, not as many people came yesterday as they did
on Tuesday. Obviously, over the next 24 hours we will start to see the results
of those extra tests that will be undertaken at those COVID clinics over the
coming days.
Obviously, it is important that we
continue as a community to work together to make sure that we keep on top of
this. That is why the government has done its level best to make sure we keep
everyone informed, including those opposite, with regard to the COVID-19 virus.
We provide briefings on a regular basis. Our most recent briefing to the
opposition was, I think, on Tuesday of this week. We will continue to provide
information to members where it is required.
So it was a bit disappointing to hear the member for
Dawesville in a media conference today provide more critique and more sideline
chatter about how the government is responding to the COVID-19 virus.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr R.H. COOK : I was
particularly disappointed that after we had provided information to the member
for Dawesville about what we are doing at
the crab festival this weekend, to hear him make remarks with regard to the information. He said, essentially—to paraphrase what he said at his
press conference—that we should be putting out public health messages
and making sure that we are working with the hundreds of thousands of people
who turn up to make sure they get the message. That made me think, ''That's
a jolly good idea! I wonder where he got that idea from?'' Then I remembered:
That is right; we committed to provide him with information about the crab
festival and what we would be doing as a government to protect people there. I look
at an email that I forwarded to the member for Dawesville from the Department
of Health just yesterday —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr R.H. COOK : It was advice
from a gentleman in the Department of Health that says —
I
spoke with City of Mandurah earlier this afternoon about measures they are
considering for Crabfest this weekend. It's evident they have
undertaken considerable planning and preparation on top of their standard risk
management for the event. This includes enhanced handwashing facilities and
stations, deployment of hand sanitiser,
signage and advisory materials, increased stringency around food prep and
serving, regular cleaning and disinfection, on site cleaners and
inspections by EHOs through the event.
So, good idea, member for
Dawesville—and now we know where he got it from!
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr R.H. COOK : The Premier
and I have been at pains to stress to the community that we are in this
together. We have to work together. We will continue to work with the
opposition to make sure it has the information that it needs to critique. We
treated the opposition as adults. They behave like children. Really, member for
Dawesville, grow up! Let us be adult-like.
Let us all work on this together, because together we will get through it. We
will flatten the curve in the future. We will best serve the Western Australian
community if we all work together on this. The member for Dawesville should not
make cheap little political points to try and insert himself into the daily
narrative by taking the information that we provide to him and using it in the
public domain.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
advice that I provided to the Parliament earlier today. More than 2 000 tests
have been undertaken in Western Australia and there are no fresh positive
results as of this morning. That is a great outcome and, quite frankly, as we
all know, the longer we can contain and isolate this viral outbreak without
community spread of the virus, the longer we will put off and flatten the peak.
That is an important message that we all must heed, which is why we, as a community,
are in this together.
The Department of Health continues
to tool up to make sure we are ready to assist the community to protect them
from the impacts of the coronavirus, which is why today I made further
announcements about what the government will be doing to make sure we better
serve the community. As of today, we will be providing results via SMS to those
people who receive negative results after having been tested for COVID-19.
Those who have undertaken COVID-19 tests are self-isolating, and it can take
between 48 and 72 hours for them to get those results back, so we want to make
sure we get that information out to them as quickly as possible. We will
provide an SMS service that will give that information out to individuals who
have a negative result, and also provide links and hotlines for where they can
go to get more information about that.
It can take clinicians up to about
20 minutes per phone call to inform patients of a negative test result. By the
end of this month, we will be testing around
1 500 people a week. As members will appreciate, that is a big body of work ,
so we will now be able to do it much more efficiently through the SMS service,
and get those important members of our
workforce back on the beat and make sure they are undertaking other tasks to
continue looking after members of the community. This is an important
development as part of our COVID-19 clinics that we have rolled out this week.
We had almost 800 people attend those clinics yesterday, and over 800 on
Tuesday—so, mercifully, not as many people came yesterday as they did
on Tuesday. Obviously, over the next 24 hours we will start to see the results
of those extra tests that will be undertaken at those COVID clinics over the
coming days.
Obviously, it is important that we
continue as a community to work together to make sure that we keep on top of
this. That is why the government has done its level best to make sure we keep
everyone informed, including those opposite, with regard to the COVID-19 virus.
We provide briefings on a regular basis. Our most recent briefing to the
opposition was, I think, on Tuesday of this week. We will continue to provide
information to members where it is required.
So it was a bit disappointing to hear the member for
Dawesville in a media conference today provide more critique and more sideline
chatter about how the government is responding to the COVID-19 virus.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr R.H. COOK : I was
particularly disappointed that after we had provided information to the member
for Dawesville about what we are doing at
the crab festival this weekend, to hear him make remarks with regard to the information. He said, essentially—to paraphrase what he said at his
press conference—that we should be putting out public health messages
and making sure that we are working with the hundreds of thousands of people
who turn up to make sure they get the message. That made me think, ''That's
a jolly good idea! I wonder where he got that idea from?'' Then I remembered:
That is right; we committed to provide him with information about the crab
festival and what we would be doing as a government to protect people there. I look
at an email that I forwarded to the member for Dawesville from the Department
of Health just yesterday —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr R.H. COOK : It was advice
from a gentleman in the Department of Health that says —
I
spoke with City of Mandurah earlier this afternoon about measures they are
considering for Crabfest this weekend. It's evident they have
undertaken considerable planning and preparation on top of their standard risk
management for the event. This includes enhanced handwashing facilities and
stations, deployment of hand sanitiser,
signage and advisory materials, increased stringency around food prep and
serving, regular cleaning and disinfection, on site cleaners and
inspections by EHOs through the event.
So, good idea, member for
Dawesville—and now we know where he got it from!
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr R.H. COOK : The Premier
and I have been at pains to stress to the community that we are in this
together. We have to work together. We will continue to work with the
opposition to make sure it has the information that it needs to critique. We
treated the opposition as adults. They behave like children. Really, member for
Dawesville, grow up! Let us be adult-like.
Let us all work on this together, because together we will get through it. We
will flatten the curve in the future. We will best serve the Western Australian
community if we all work together on this. The member for Dawesville should not
make cheap little political points to try and insert himself into the daily
narrative by taking the information that we provide to him and using it in the
public domain.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
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