Hospital backed over staff furloughs

TASMANIA’S public health director says he is confident in infection control practices at the state’s largest hospital after five staff were furloughed from work this week.

The Royal Hobart Hospital staff were stood down after potential exposure to COVID-19 after the state’s latest case of the virus was confirmed on Monday.

The young Tasmanian woman had returned from Victoria and was in quarantine at the Best Western hotel in Hobart before being taken to the RHH.

Dr Mark Veitch said on Friday one hospital staff member had been placed in quarantine for 14 days while four others were furloughed from work.

“I have confidence in the work of the infection control people at the Royal Hobart Hospital,’’ he said.

“They did a careful analysis of the contacts of the case that’s being managed there and looked at the level of protection that they had.

“They subsequently did a crosscheck with the Public Health contact tracing team and ultimately it was thought that there was one person who could have met the criteria of a close contact ...”

Dr Veitch said the staff member in quarantine was deemed to be at slightly higher risk than the other four, but it was a “cautious approach” to not have any of them at work.

On Thursday, Health Minister Sarah Courtney commended the “proactive approach” taken by the RHH.

Labor leader Rebecca White said furloughing raised questions about the preparedness of the hospital to cope with further cases of the virus.