100 pop-up clinics to be set up under $2.4b plan to fight coronavirus

Rob Harris and Dana McCauley

March 10, 2020

The Age

Up to 100 pop-up respiratory clinics will be established around the nation to fight the spread of coronavirus under a $2.4 billion federal government plan that also includes subsidised video-link consultations and a targeted public health campaign.

The specialist treatment centres in areas of greatest need will divert Australians with mild or moderate symptoms away from strained emergency departments and local clinics so they can handle the more severe cases.

The Australian Government has confirmed 100 cases of coronavirus in Australia, as the death toll remains at three.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will unveil the measures on Wednesday to combat the advance of COVID-19 ahead of the expected release of a multibillion-dollar stimulus package later this week to help cushion the economy over the coming months in a bid to stave off a recession.

The health package will contain a $30 million national awareness campaign to begin within days, targeting those most at risk of contracting the disease, with television, radio, print, digital and social media advertisements.

Mr Morrison said the measures were about ensuring the health system was well prepared and had the resources it needed in the fight against the coronavirus.

“Australia isn’t immune but with this $2.4 billion boost we’re as well prepared as any country in the world,” he told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “Our medical experts have been preparing for an event like this for years and this is the next step up in Australia’s plan.

“Our government, alongside the country’s leading medical experts, is working around the clock to ensure we have the right tools, information and resources to keep Australians safe.”

It is estimated each pop-up clinic, to be staffed by GPs and nurses, will be able to treat up to 75 patients a day over six months.

Thirty-one independent primary healthcare organisations will work with the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the states to identify pop-up clinic sites in regional, rural and urban areas across the country. They will receive $300,000 to help find and establish the sites and distribute personal protective equipment.

A new Medicare item will also be created so people at home in self-isolation or quarantine elsewhere can access health services and reduce the risk of exposure to others in the community.

The video-conferencing service, to start on Friday, will be fully bulk-billed, allowing medical, nursing and mental health staff to consult patients over the phone using services such as FaceTime, Skype and WhatsApp.

The measures come after the NSW epidemiologist whose work inspired the Trump administration’s coronavirus response backed calls for Australians to self-isolate en masse, saying “low-cost social distancing” measures such as working from home were an efficient way to slow down the pandemic.

Craig Dalton, a public health physician and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Newcastle, was stunned to learn on Tuesday that a paper he co-wrote, published last week, had been cited by US health authorities as the basis of its new public information campaign.

“You don’t want to wait until people are forced to work at home,” he told the Herald and The Age.

Associate Professor Dalton said “low-cost” measures such as tele-conferencing, staggering group events to avoid crowding and ensuring those who could worked from home would not hurt productivity but would potentially save the public health system from a surge in coronavirus cases.

Tele-health services will be available to people isolating themselves at home on the advice of a medical practitioner and people who meet the current national triage protocol criteria for suspected COVID-19 infection after consultation with either the national or state hotlines, registered medical or nursing practitioners or other trained health staff.

Australians aged over 70, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 50, people with chronic health conditions, parents with new babies and pregnant women will also qualify for the treatment.

The service will initially run for six months, costing $100 million, before being reviewed.