Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Health Minister Natasha Fyles who answers questions about the December 20 reopening of the Territory

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Katie spoke with Health Minister Natasha Fyles who answers questions about the December 20 reopening of the Territory · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining me on the line is the Health Minister,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Natasha Files. Good morning to you, Good morning Katid, Good
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: morning with Sam Minister. Firstly, are you able to give
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: us an update on which communities are now in a
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: lockout or have mask mandates in place?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, Kady, as you just mentioned in your opener, there
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: was a fair bit of information on the weekend for
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: communities in that Casterine region and Barkley region, so I
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: do encourage anyone to head to the secure NTEA website
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: to be able to read it. But we have detections
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: of waste water in Alice Springs which then went presumptive,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: so that was a low reading, so we think that
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: may have been someone transfitting through or someone in home quarantine.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: There's three hundred and seventy five people as I understand,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: in home quarantine and Alice Springs. But we did also
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: then have it in the Barunga and Beswick. Barunga has
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: a high vaccination rate so it has a mask mandate.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: But Beswick was put into a lockout, so for those
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: that have vaccinated they can move around. For those that
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: are unvaccinated they do need to only leave home for
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: essential regions reasons. And then on Sunday, the wastewater COVID
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: was detected in a number of remote locations, Katie. These
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: remote locations tend to be all around kal Karinki, La Jamanu,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Daggaragu is an outstation near Calkarindi, and Bulla which is
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: a little further north near Timber Creek. But the big one,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: probably for your listeners, is Tenant Creek, So we really
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: need Tenant Creek residents to get vaccinated. They're at sixty
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: nine percent fully backs and around eighty percent having had
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: their first dose, so they've done well. Would just be
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: great to see those second doses to get the fully
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: backed community up to a high VACKS rate. And we're
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: certainly not going to ask questions. I think people might
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: feel a little uncomfortable at this late point coming forward
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to get vaccinated. Our health professionals they don't care about
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: your personal business. They'll just vaccinate you. So just a
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: really big reminder, please get vaccinated if you haven't been.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Now are you expecting more positive cases today, Teddy.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I'd be surprised if we don't have more cases coming
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: from this Cutterin cluster.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: We've got a.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Number of cases. There was four links to that cluster
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: over the weekend and there's a number of household contacts,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: so we've put them in to isolation, moved people to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Center for National Resilience. So I guess I'm even surprised
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: to date there hasn't been more cases. But that's obviously
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the great work of our frontline teams down there, and
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: also those residents wearing masks and physically distancing and getting vaccinated.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Now I know that obviously there's plenty of work being
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: done to make sure that people are vaccinated and to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: make sure that we're ready once those border is open
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: on December twenty. I've got to say, though these changes,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: they're sending territorians into a real spin. Minister. I've got
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a message from from Mick over the weekend and it
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: says my partner and I are due to travel to Queensland.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: We're in Jabbarou, both fully vaccinated, ready to do the booster.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: But after the twentieth of December on return to the territory.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: As we all know, you've got a quarantine in Darwin,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Catherine or in Alice Springs. Mick says this is not
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: practical if you live in communities outside of Darwin. He's
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: in mining and his partner's an essential worker. They're desperate
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to understand their position and believe that the government's punishing
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: them for where they live. Minister, what is the situation
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: for essential workers that are living in more regional and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: remote areas come December twenty Katy, Just before I.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Answer that question, it's important for people to understand that
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: the whole country is now entering a new phase of
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: dealing with a pandemic. We're pushing from a pandemic to
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: an endemic and is going to be a bumpy ride.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: We saw Queensland open their borders last night to everyone,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: and so what I think people have thought that they
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: were going to Queensland or going to Tasmania and that
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: was a green zone and they would be okay. But unfortunately,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: over the next few weeks we're going to see COVID everywhere.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: We've already seen it make presence in South Australia, so
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: we have to pivot away to these on again off
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: again declarations of hot spot and start to live with
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the endemic of COVID. But I do acknowledge it certainly
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: is difficult for those that come from the region. We
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: have the five to eleven year old. Because we have
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: such a young population, we really need them vaccinated to
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: help lift that rate. But in terms of essential workers,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: we will now work through with Education, Health, with the
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Office of the Chow around the practicalities of this over
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: the coming days with an absolute sense of urgent Dicatie,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I know many people had planned Christmas holidays away, Yes,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: so what.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Is expected to happen because I mean if we're talking
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: about teachers, even our police, our health workers who are
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: planning to go away of booked to go away, and
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: they're now going to have to do fourteen days in
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: either Darwin Alla Springs or Catherine, a highly vaccinated area,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: how is that going to be possible for some of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: those essential workers.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: So, Katie, I think people had made an assumption with
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: domestic that you know, Queensland, some of those areas would
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: be green zones. I feel that the country will spread
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: to a red zone. Apart from Wa they're sticking to
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: their own things, and so what it did mean is
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: that people would have been facing some type of health
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: measure as these jurisdictions would have shifted to a red zone.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: And so we're trying to step forward with the testing regime.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: But it is going to be a bumpy ride.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: That's why they got double vags, right, I mean, that's
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: why everybody got double vaccinated. A lot of people were like,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you know, we've got to do this so that we
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: are able to actually travel away come Christmas time and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: we are able to see our families again.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: But Katie, we can't afford at this final hurdle to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: stumble and to have COVID spread so rapidly in our community.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: And so we are stepping away from those red and
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Green zones treating Australia as one. But we still need
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: to have public health measures to keep our community faith.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: So why not re implement those biosecurity zones again?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: So Katie, we have acknowledged that the biosecurity zones and
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: trying to keep people in community is practically not possible.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: We've got a very transient population and so it would
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: not be a public health measure that would keep the
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: community safe. So we need to focus around other measures
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: that would be practical.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: How is it going to be police, How are we
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: actually going to make sure then that if people do
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: travel away come Christmas time, that they're not going into
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: more regional or remote areas so.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: People are able to transit, so they can drive from
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Darwin or Catherine through the Vasi region into South Australia
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: or across the Queensland for example. Then when they come
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: back they need to comply with those show directions around
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: getting having a negative test when they arrived, before they
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: arrive in the territory, then on arrival and then day six.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: So there'll be show directions in place that will ensure
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: people comply and if they breach that, we all know
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: that there's a penalty in place, all right.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: We know that this is also going to have a
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: massive impact on tourism. We spoke to Tourism Central Australia
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and also Hospitality and Tea on Friday last week. They
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: said that these changes are going to have a terrible
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: impact over the Christmas break. As the Tourism Minister, you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: must be concerned that this announcement now means that tourism
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: sector basically in regional nt is closed off to everybody
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: besides territorians.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Oh Katie. The tourism and hospitality industry is being devastated
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: and my role as the ministry is to support them
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: over what will be a bumpy few weeks and It's
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: important to remember we've bought these changes forward from the
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: middle of January to the middle of December.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: But I certainly be.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Working with them, listening to their advocacy around some practical
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: solutions and talking to Health about how we can step
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: forward to support this industry.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: So are you expecting this to only last for a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: few weeks, so.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Katie, as I said, we're in a transition phase from
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the pandemic to the endemic, and so we do believe
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: that this will be for a period of time. We
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: know that the five to eleven year olds we can
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: vaccinate them from January tenth, so we're making sure that
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: we'll sedge our resources to get them vaccinated as quickly
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: as possible and then we'll see those overall rates lists
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that we feel that we can keep the community safe
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: whilst having much for your travel within the territory.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Is there any possibility here for the tourism sector that
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you know that you're able to have travel bubbles, So
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: maybe the likes of Litchfield National Park and Bachelor in
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: a Darwin Zone, nit Malak Gorge obviously in Catherine and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: in Central Australia having a travel bubble for the likes
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of Lara.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: So, Katie, our vulnerable communities remain vulnerable, and so many
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: remote communities we need to get those five to eleven
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: year olds. But we're certainly looking at practical solutions to
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: keep the community safe. But I do envisage, as I
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: just said, that this will be for a period of
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: time until we see much freer travel within the territory
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: and across Australia.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Have you met with the tourism and hospitality sector and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: what has your message been to them?
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: So I did speak with Tourism Central Australia on Friday,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: and I'll be catching up with Tourism top ends this
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: week and just listening to the practical solutions that they
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: may be able to bring forward and balancing that with
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: a healthy advice to keep the community safe over the
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: coming week, which will be a very bumpy ride.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Katie, I acknowledge that how are they going to be
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: supported through what is going to be such a difficult
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: time when they've already had such a difficult time and
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: they really didn't see this coming.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: So Katie, a point to the fact that we are
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: opening up a month earlier. It might not been as
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: people and busied, but we have put in place a
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: number of tourism survival funds of visitation reliance support programs.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: We announced just a couple of weeks ago an extension
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: to that with a significant increase working with the Commonwealth.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: So we'll keep working with them around those industry supports
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: to get them through to that March April when we
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: start to see the peak season in the territory.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So Minister, I mean, are you expecting that the reality
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of this is come December twenty that we are going
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to see, you know, a lot more COVID in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory community.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, I hope not, Katie, but I think it's
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: inevitable that COVID. We are not aiming for eradication. We
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: can clearly seeing Catherine, that it is seeping and so
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: we need to make sure that it's managed and doesn't
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: overburden our health system. South Australia has already got COVID
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: in their community. I imagine it will be spreading in
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Queensland within the coming weeks following their border opening. And
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: so what people need to understand is that we've responded
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: to the situation in Australia. So we could have start
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: with our old measures that every jurisdiction I believe over
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: the next few weeks would have become a red zone,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: which was fourteen days quarantine or seven days quarantine. So
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: as much as people are frustrated, in one sense, we
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: are trying to be as practical as possible in responding
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: to the change in COVID situation in Australia.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I did just get a message from Alex Bruce, the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory. He said, Katie,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: could we declare null and Boy a high VAC zone
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and then look at including the likes of Litchfield National
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Park and other areas into those travel bubbles and see
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: all essential workers that cannot come into contact with Faulner?
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Can they also well those that are on stations and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: mind sights etc. Is there a possibility for them to
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: be able to still get those exemptions and do their.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Jobs, Katie, I've got a strong relation with the relationship
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: with the tourism and hospitality industry, as do my colleagues
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: with those other portfolios. So we'll certainly be listening to
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: their advocacy with a sense of urgency. But as I said,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: we can't fall over at these final hurdles and allow
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: COVID to spread rapidly and overburden our health system.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, has the government sort of overshot here though?
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Do you need to take a relook at this and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: go all right, we actually do need to rethink the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: way we're looking at doing things for essential workers in
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: some of those regional and remote locations, and we do
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: need to look at whether we could potentially have travel
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: bubbles for some of those tourism hotspots that Katie.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: We're facing a time where there is an increasing risk
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of COVID spreading in the territory and those vulnerable communities
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: until we can get the five to eleven year olds
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: vaccinated do remain particularly vulnerable, and as much as frontline
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: workers have the best interest of those communities that they're
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: a part of, they could potentially be the linkage to
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: spread COVID into that community. So January complete situation.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: So January teenh is my understanding, is when when children
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: aged from five to eleven are going to be able
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to be eligible for that vaccine. So we are talking
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: about a significant period of time here where presumably our
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: tourism sector is going to be on its nies.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: So Katie, it's been a particularly hard time throughout the pandemic,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: and unfortunately that will continue for some time to come.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: But we do have an opportunity to keep our community
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: safe and step through this and be ready to open
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: up to visitation when we have that vaccination rate, which
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: is so important from our five to eleven years.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: All right, One of the questions which continues to be
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: asked is what happens if you test positive to COVID
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: after you've traveled into state, you get home, you're at
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: your home, you test positive on one of those three
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: ten it needs to be conducted. Do you have to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: go into the Center for National Resilience or will you
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: be able to quarantine at home?
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: To Katie, your care comes first. So it's difficult to
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: talk about individual scenarios, but in a broad sense, we
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: are preparing for COVID at home. So if an individual
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: does have a suitable place, they're not putting the community
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: or other members of their family or household at risk.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: We are looking into that because we will see increasing
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: numbers and so that is one of the programs that
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: we're working on with intelth all.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Right, Minister, you've spoken about the situation that we have
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: obviously with making sure that our health system is not overburdened.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: We had quite a few people call into the station
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: last week to talk about elective surgeries and those elective
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: surgery wait times. I know that the COLP has been
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: out this morning saying that they've received some of the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: answers to written questions that they put forward around those
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: elective surgeries, and it looks as though, you know, it's
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: some fairly significant wait times and also those surgeries being
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: canceled or rescheduled seventy five percent as I understand at
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Royal Dalen Hospital, fifty percent at the Palmerston Hospital, seventy
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: five at the Catherine Hospital having to be canceled or rescheduled.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: When are we going to see changes, I guess to
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: those elective surgeries and people able to get you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: get those operations done that they need.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: So, Katie, we've already seen some significant changes over the
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: past few weeks. We've managed to provide appropriate care for
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: a number of age care patients and disability patients that
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: have been in our hospital system for a long time,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: so they've moved to more suitable accommodation, which has freed
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: up hospital beds. There has been a significant increase in
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: presentations in top end hospitals over the past five years.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: We're working particularly in that mental health space with significant
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: investment and infrastructure coming online. We also have been impact
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: ICADI around travel restrictions for visiting medical offices in surgeons,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: and this is not something that we should just simply
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: employ these people in the territory. Surgeons and specialist medical
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: professionals need to have a volume of patients and they
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: wouldn't see that in the territory, but they come in
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: and provide that service that's been impacted. So there's a
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: number of reasons to why we've seen an impact on
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: elective surgery wait time, but we're also putting in place
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: a number of measures to reduce.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Those I'm just going to take you to a call
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: that we took from Anne late last week. Take a listen.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: He went through the emergency operation. They ended up with
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: a STAMA bag and we were told that that would
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: be reversed in about six months. We're December, thirteen months later,
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: and we're still waiting for a reversal. He's also got
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: really bad a hernia, so he's gone back to his
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: GP that's tried to ring the surgical team three or
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: four times yep, and to no evail. Now, we were
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: told back in March that we could have this reverse publicly.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: We don't have the twenty five odd thousand dollars to
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: do this privately. Sorry, when you told by a surgical
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: team that yes, the reversal was going to happen within
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: six months, you don't get told yance not happening.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Minister. We will make sure that we pass in details onto.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: But is that an acceptable situation in your eyes?
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: So, Katie, that the line did break up. I didn't
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: hear all of what Anne said, but it sounds like
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: her family member is in a particularly difficult situation, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: of course her details we can certainly look into that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: We're working actively to enhance the systems to provide for
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: patients there that are on those surgery waiting lists, and Katie,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: they're categorized in terms of categories one, two, and three.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: People can move around within that system when we're trying
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: to make sure that they can easily access that. But
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: this is a complex space of delivering healthcare.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Look, I may mixed these details up slightly because I
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: don't know exactly what the procedure is. But she'd said
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: that her husband has a stoma bag which he was
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: told would be removed after three or four months. I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: believe he's still We've got it in thirteen months later,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: O Katie.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I'm just not across the individual's details and it wouldn't
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: be appropriate. But patient safety is a priority. Are dedicated
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: staff at ARDH work extremely hard. There has been a
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: number of barriers and we're continually working. We've invested significantly
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: in health and we will do so into the future.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Minister. Just finally, the Chief Minister is on leave. I understand, Katie.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I think that it's been an incredibly busy time for
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: everyone and I hope all Territorians do manage to get
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: a break. It's important for our mental and physical health.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I'll certainly be taking some time with my family over
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: the Christmas January period, so you'll start to see a
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: number of the ministers and members of Parliament from both
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Opposition and government all take a break. But yes, the
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Chief Minister has taken a short amount of time to
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: be with his family and as I said, it's important
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: we all look after ourselves.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: I know that that we did have people get in
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: contact with us over the weekend saying has he taken
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: leave before that December twenty date because he's concerned that
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: there's going to be issues come when we get to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: December twenty.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, Katie, I think that all of us have got
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: personal arrangements, and yes, COVID is a complex overlay, but
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: I don't believe that's.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: The reason that Minister just very quickly, I know you've
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: got to go. We did receive a message somebody asking
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: if there was an escape from the Center for National
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Resilience last night or over the weekend.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Sorry, so, Katie, I've been very busy with media this
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: morning and I'm about to head into as you've just
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: alluded to, I probably do need to get moving into that.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Emergency tablet meeting where both myself and Nicole Manerson will
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: be fully breathed on everything and if there is any
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: information that the public needs to know, it will certainly
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: be shared with them very quickly by the Territory Controller
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: and Health Authority.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: All Right, Health Minister Natasha Files also Minister for Tourism.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: We will leave it there. Thank you for your time
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you,