Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / AMA's Dr Robert Parker says it'll take some time to replace $30 million of medical supplies destroyed by fire and surgeries could be delayed

Transcript

AMA's Dr Robert Parker says it'll take some time to replace $30 million of medical supplies destroyed by fire and surgeries could be delayed · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And as you heard on the show yesterday, we know
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: that thirty million dollars worth of damage was sustained after
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a fire broke out at that warehouse in Berrima on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the weekend. Now, the fire saw medical equipment which supplies supplies,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: i should say Royal dal And Hospital, Palmerston Catherine and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Gove District Hospitals. It was all damaged. The type of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: equipment affected, as we understand, includes disposable sheets for surgery, gloves,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: cleaning supplies, that kind of thing. Now, the Australian Medical
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Association's Northern Territory Branch President, Doctor Robert Parker, joins me
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: on the line right now. Good morning to you, Dr Parker.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Greetings from COVID Isolation and Melbourne.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Oh goodness me, that's no good hope. Are you feeling okay?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm fine and it's slightly better than how it springs.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: You can order some alcohol or a cappuccino. It's from
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: your house shops, so.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Men, you'll take it. You'll take it. Oh well, no
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: rest for the wicked. Still still working hard, Dr Parker,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: by the sounds of it, and and obviously this situation
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: with the storage shed going up in flames, over the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: weekend is causing some real issues for Northern Territory health
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: right now, what's your take on this?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Well, again, I'm not close to the issue as you'd
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: imagine being in Melbourne, but certainly you'd have to wonder
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: with the everyman view that thirty million dollars of stock
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  Speaker 2: disappearing in one hit and people saying well, everything's going fine,
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  Speaker 2: you'd have to wonder. I mean, obviously they've got enough
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: for a couple of days, but as I pointed out,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: you just can't replace thirty indians of dollars of stock quickly,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and the exists there's probably a reasonable amount of pressure
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: on existing supply lines both within Australia and also I
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: understand that the war in Europe's also impacted the ability
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to get material from overseas. I'd imagine the ability to
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: replace an existing stock of that magnitude is going to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: be quite difficult in the short term.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Dr Parker. When you talk about out you know, sheets
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: for surgery, gloves, cleaning supplies, that kind of thing, a
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: lot of us will be thinking, oh, surely it's quite
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: easy to get, but how big an impact will this
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: have if we do wind up with a short form.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Well, again, the system health system will have to adjust,
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  Speaker 2: and I mean I suppose it's a bit like a
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: code yellow where you have to adjust things. So I
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: presume the first if the system, if the system doesn't
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: just it probably cancelation of electric surgical lists because again
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I tend to use a lot of that disposable stuff.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: So the system will adjust so that the wards will
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: probably have made prioritiy on the disposable material and that
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: they have to cancel other things to make the system work.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Now, doctor Parker, obviously you are in isolation with COVID,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: but have you had much wood, or have you had
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: doctors or any of the health stuff from any of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the hospitals get in contact with you and raise concerns
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: or what are they telling you at this point?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean my my information is that there's not
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of stock available the territory ten to use
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: stuff fairly quickly. So we're hoping, as the minister said
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: that there'll be a plane arriving on Wednesday. We have
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: it's full of full of stuff. There's a transport plane
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: arriving and it's got some material on board. But again,
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  Speaker 2: you know, being able to replace thirty million dollars worth
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  Speaker 2: a material. Very you know, it's a lot of stuff
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to have down the drain, and you wonder, I suppose
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I'm more skeptical about the ability to quickly replace that
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: material in a usable state. Yeah.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I think of myself as being skeptical by nature, doctor Parker,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and I feel a bit the same as you. I think,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, surely it's going to take quite some time
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to build up those stock levels again and also be
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a costly exercise.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Well, it's a major to the NT budget. And you
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: have to wonder about the tender that organize an aging
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: warehouse in truck City, you know with apparently I'm hearing
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: no fire retardant or very limited fire retardant in the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: warehouse to store this material, so people will be running
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: for cover and healthhouse. Whoever organized a ten and maybe
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: buck in the tabulist the moment? Yeah, and you know
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: it's probably years It all happened years ago, but obviously
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: not a particularly good decision. You resume the future decisions
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: about stories will be better informed about the ability to
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: deal with another issues. Yeah, well, you know this is
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: a if this is an aging warehouse, you'd imagine we've
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: got a decent cyclone, the whole thing would have disappeared
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: as well, So you already wonder anyway.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So doctor Parker, do you think we're in a situation
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  Speaker 1: here where you know that that location was was potentially
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: not the best fit for those supplies anyway.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she'd have to wonder, well, exactly, I mean, if
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  Speaker 2: it's if it's got very limited or no fire retardant
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  Speaker 2: and you've got thirty million dollars worth of stock in
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  Speaker 2: a flammable stock sitting there, not a particularly good decision,
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  Speaker 2: I would have thought.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And look, I'm being told that that tender was potentially
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: not too long ago. But have you had obviously you've
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: had inside it sort of say to you that there
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't a great deal of fire retardant or or I'm assuming,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know whether there was sprinklers or
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: anything inside to be able to sort of deal with
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  Speaker 1: it when it initially started.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Well, my understanding was it was very limited or no
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: fire retardant here. Which is it?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Which is a concern it most certainly is. Well, we
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  Speaker 1: are due to catch up with the department in a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes time, so we'll see what we can what
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  Speaker 1: we can find out I know I mentioned this before
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: about the exercise of having to replace everything being costly,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: but do you anticipate that it is going to be
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a pretty expensive thing for us to do? Well?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Thirty million dollars. Last, my understanding is the territory always
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: ensures itself. So that's thirty million dollars of the check
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: taxpayer's got to front up to replace. And so in
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the end, if they had to replace the sixty million
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: dollar hip to the territory budget, sixty million dollars that
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: could have spent on something else.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Well, could have spent within the health department money. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I would have thought that sixty million dollars wouldn't go
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: wouldn't go astray in terms of ensuring that we've got
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: adequate resourcing and staffing levels as well within our hospitals
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and our other healthcare centers.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly, well, doctor Robert Parker.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Always appreciate your time. I do hope that you're feeling better.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: And how many days left in II.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: This charge tomorrow?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So good luck, good luck, good stuff, good on you. Thanks,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Parker. I appreciate your time.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, thanks very much, Thank you.