The state's residential aged care facilities made more than 130 requests for personal protective equipment from the national stockpile between March and mid-August, but just 25 were approved.
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New figures released to a Senate inquiry into the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic show there were 2865 requests from Australian residential aged care services to access PPE from the Commonwealth's national medical stockpile.
Less than half (1324) were approved.
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In the month of April, when the deadly coronavirus outbreak in North-West Tasmania was at its peak, Tasmanian residential facilities made 98 requests to access PPE from the stockpile. While all requests from providers managing COVID-19 outbreaks were approved, as were those where providers couldn't source PPE to meet a clinical need, the Health Department approved a mere 18 requests in total.
Julie Collins, Franklin MHR and federal Labor's aged care spokeswoman, said the Commonwealth government needed to explain why so many aged care providers' calls for assistance were denied.
"It is incredibly concerning that at the height of the North-West COVID-19 outbreak so many Tasmanian aged care providers' requests for PPE were being rejected," she said.
"This could have been a disaster, with report after report identifying shortages of PPE as a key contributor to COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care."
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said the provision of PPE to aged care providers and workers was one of the Australian government's "highest priorities".
"As a baseline, aged care providers have responsibility to source supplies of personal protective equipment and should have sufficient levels on hand for any infectious outbreak," he said.
"The national medical stockpile ... is then available [for] emergency supply and to meet critical demand where supplies cannot be sourced from usual suppliers. It is not intended to be a general supply line for PPE."
"At every stage the government has followed the expert medical advice (advice from the Australian Health Principle Protection Committee) around the use of PPE in aged care homes."
This could have been a disaster, with report after report identifying shortages of PPE as a key contributor to COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care.
- Julie Collins, federal Labor aged care spokeswoman
PPE supplies were "generally scarce" in the early stages of the pandemic and the decreasing availability of important equipment resulted in price gouging by certain "cowboy suppliers", according to Aged & Community Services Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow.
"At the same time, there was pressure on the national stockpile and prioritisation was needed," she said. "When there was an outbreak, our members said they had the support and PPE they needed through the stockpile."
Robbie Moore, assistant state secretary of the Health and Community Services Union, which represents Tasmania's aged care workers, said it was "only through luck" that the state's aged care homes, particularly those in the North-West, did not experience large COVID-19 outbreaks.
"With [Tasmanian] borders reopening, aged care workers are very concerned that we are not prepared for another outbreak," he said.
A 79-year-old resident at Melaleuca Home for the Aged in East Devonport died after testing positive for coronavirus in April. It was believed she may have contracted the virus from a staff member who had also tested positive, and who worked at two other aged care facilities in the region: Eliza Purton Home at West Ulverstone and Coroneagh Park at Penguin.
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