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Katie Woolf spoke with Palmerston GP Super Clinic CEO Robyn Cahill · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you're listening to the show yesterday, you would have
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: certainly heard a lot of talk about the vaccination rates
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and what's going to happen to take the Northern Territory
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: well to get us to the point, I guess where
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: we can open up to other states. The Chief Minister
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: spoke to us a little bit earlier in the week,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and this is what he had to say when it
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: comes to those vaccination rates and whether we would then
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: be out of lockdown.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: So it's seventy, it becomes much less likely, and at
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: eighty it would be incredibly rere under the national plan.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: So no one's ruling out lockdowns at these stages. It
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: just gives you, I'll have much more choices at our
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: disposal depending on the scenario of the outbreak, but it's
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: become much less likely and we'll have to do lockdowns.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So that was when asked about whether we would still
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: be in a situation where we'd have to go into
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: lockdowns if we do meet that eighty percent mark when
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it comes to those vaccines. But we also know that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: there was then that argie bargie I think you'd say
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: between the federal government and the Northern Territory government around
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: just those rates are at the Chief Minister saying that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the figures released by the federal government were flat out wrong.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: He reckons it counted medicare addresses rather than where the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: vaccines themselves were administered. But we do know that the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: CEO of the Palmeston Superclinic says that the Northern Territory
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: government's method of counting those doses actually risks creating a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: false sense of security. Robin Carl, the CEO of the
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  Speaker 1: Palmerston Superclinic, joins us on the line right now.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Good morning to you, Robin.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: Good morning Katie.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Robin.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: There is a lot of concern when it comes to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: these numbers. What is the worry from your perspective, I guess.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: The issue is that we know that about twenty percent
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: of the people that have come through our vaccination servers
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: have interstate post codes, and that's not interstate postcodes linked
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: to their medicicarriages. We actually specifically say can we please
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: have your usual place of residence, which sometimes won't be
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: the addressed link to their mediccharacter And I do understand
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: the importance of getting it right. At the end of
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: the day, we're one country and we really should just
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: be focusing on getting everybody in the country vaccinated and
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: it shouldn't really matter where they get their job as
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: long as it's counted.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Robin, we I mean, do you have so you
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: said about twenty percent. Is it coming from inter state
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and getting the vaccine at the superclinic.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Well, it's a variety of people. So, as we know,
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: grain and nomads have always been a big part of
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: our tourism industry, and there's a lot of people who've
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: been on the road for quite some time now moving
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: between states and territories, and so we get quite a
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: few people coming through. They might have had their first
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: injection in another state or territory and they're due for
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: their second injection. Some of them come here for their
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: first just before they move on to their next destination
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: where they'll get their second injection in another state or territory.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: And I think we also have a number of flame
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: play outworkers, so they take the opportunity when they're in
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: between coming in and going out to get their injections
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: done with their high and bases are actually into state
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: and there certainly has been a little bit of vaccination
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: tourism going on. We've had people who have told us
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: that they've been quite desperate to get the vaccine, and
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: so they've actually made the decision to come and spend
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: two or three weeks in the Northern Territory and actually
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: get the vaccinations while they're here.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Really, have you had many of them?
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: I can't really say what the exact numbers are. We
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: haven't really broken them down, and it's probably not a
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: significant significant amount of the percentage of interstate tourists, but
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: enough that we've noticed it and felt that that perhaps
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: reflected that there was some angst in other states and
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: territories that it took so long for the age groups
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: to be opened up to a much broader age group
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: than was originally the case.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Robin, can you sort of talk us through you know,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: when someone does get their vaccine, how is it then categorized?
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  Speaker 1: You know, with those figures that have come out from
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the federal government, is it just a matter of you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: where they've received the vaccine or you know, I guess
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: for us and our listeners, it's becoming a bit confusing
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: as to why the federal government's figures are different to
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government's figures.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: So I guess what we're after is how it.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Actually works when you are administering those vaccines in the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: super clinic and working out where someone's from.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: So basically what we're required to get Medicare numbers where
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: people have Medicare numbers, not for the purpose of billing,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: but just so that we can actually upload their data
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: into what's called the Australian Immanization Register, which is the
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: register that then allows people to get their digital certificates
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: to their my Gover account. But at the same time
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: we also get their addresses, and we're quite specific and
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: we've been asking them if they could give us their
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: current residential address, not their transient address, so the place
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: where they spend the majority of their time, and that's
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the information we gather for the Australian government. They've always
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: used Medicare data in terms of identifying where demand and needed.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: And to my extent, the Northern churchim is absolutely correct.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: There are some people who just don't get around to
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: updating their addresses on the Medicare website, and so you
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: will have people who are now living in the Northern
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: Territory whose Medicare addresses are still into state. But by
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  Speaker 4: the same token, you'll have people who used to live
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: in the Northern Territory who's moved into state, who haven't
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: changed the medicare addresses either, So really that should balance out.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: So the critical thing in terms of making sure that
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: we're targeting where we need to target, we should really
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: be focusing on getting people's actual residential addresses so that
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: we know where their primary place of residence is. And
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: then it's just simply a matter of running reports on
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: post code, which is what we did. And we did
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: that because of the data that came out suggesting that
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: the Palmerston region rates were much lower than the Darwin
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  Speaker 4: City rates and we thought, all, this doesn't sound right,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: but when we ran the report, we found it was
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: actually correct. So we're sitting at about fifty five percent
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  Speaker 4: of the people that we vaccinate from the Palmerston region,
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: so it probably is a more accurate reflection of what's
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: happening cost the territory in that respect.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks it seems so interesting, and I guess
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: fundamentally what we want is for everybody to get vaccinated
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: so we can try to reach those eighty percent vaccination rates.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: But it does seem as though there is you know,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: there's the potential for that false sense of security. I
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: suppose if the numbers are looking higher than what they actually.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Are, definitely certainly in the urban areas. And I think
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: there's a flip side to this argument where the Northern
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: Church government is absolutely correct, and that is using Medicare
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: data in our very remote areas is not going to
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: give us a good reflection on how many people have
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: been vaccinated in those areas, simply because lots of our
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Aboriginal population don't have a Medicare number. We often find
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: that people give us Medicare numbers when they come in
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: for care, but they're invalid or they're expired and they
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: haven't had a chance to renew them. We also get
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: a very transient movement between various communities, which will make
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: it challenging to actually go community by community. So really
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: we should be looking at how many people have been
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: vaccinated in those remote regions, specifically doing a head count
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: there probably does work better than the Medicare data does
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: in the urban areas.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Now, we heard John Patterson from AMSAT on the show
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: yesterday and he reckons it should all be a little
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: bit more transparent in terms of those numbers and that
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: it should be. You know, we should have the ability
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to see exactly what areas were maybe lacking I guess,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: or you know what regions we're lacking.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: I guess. Do you think the same?
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Do you think that the figures do need to be
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a little bit more transparent so we can see exactly
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: where we are at.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I think it would make it so much easier, particularly
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: for the ams IS to know where they need to
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  Speaker 4: focus their energy and remote communities to get people on
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  Speaker 4: board to get vaccinated. It would also surely help the
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Department of Health locally to know where they need to
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: focus their energies and getting vaccines out to communities. Again,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: the transient nature between communities does present a problem, but
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: at least if we had a clearer picture of that information,
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: and even if the government doesn't want to make it
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: publicly available, it should at the very least make it
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: available to those services that are actually being tasked with
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: providing the vaccination services in those communities so they know
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: where to focus their energies. There's no point in going
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  Speaker 4: to community where ninety percent of them have had the
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  Speaker 4: vaccination and the community next door no one's had it,
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  Speaker 4: because you're not actually getting the accuracy around that information.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: So it is a Look, it's tough, and we do
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: have this approach where basically anyone who wants to be
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: vaccinated should be able to be vaccinated, and it doesn't
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  Speaker 4: really matter where they come from, because at the end
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: of the day, if we don't get the whole country's
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: vaccination rate up to what it needs to be, it
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: won't matter which state or territory wins. Though we've got
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: the most vaccinated people competition that seems to be running
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: at a political level at the moment for reasons that
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: I can't have them, it'll be irrelevant because the whole
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: country is going to still be in that situation as
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: being at risk. So you really just need to be anger.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: We're all Australian, doesn't matter where you are, get yourself
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: into a vaccination clinic, get your vaccination, then let's just
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: move on.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is such a good point and it's spot on.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, if all of Australia isn't up to the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: vaccination standard that we're expecting, it's not going to matter
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: if we are here in the Northern Territory when other
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: states aren't. And I also I think it's been really
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: interesting actually to see the way that it sort of
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: feels like we're in competition with each other.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: Or we're worried about other states, and yeah.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: Health service in the health service arena, we're all looking
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: at each other going who cares? You doesn't actually care?
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: This is a race.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: It's a race to get their population vaccinated. But it's
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: not a competition to see who gets the most people
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: across the line. It's for the whole country to get
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: everybody across the line as much as possible.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Robin, how is the role out going from your perspective
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: out at the superclinic, have you still been run off
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: your feet?
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been going really, really well. We are pretty
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: much at capacity in terms of the availability of vaccines
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: that we have, so we've had to do a little
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: bit of tweaking so we can make sure we've got
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: availability on the day for people who are coming in.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Certainly the opening of the hub in Palmerston will be
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: of great benefit and I think probably one of the
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: reasons why the rates in the Palmerston area have been
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: a little lower than the Dal and Order Subabs area
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: is the accessibility to vaccines for people has been a
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: little more challenging, so we're really so pleased to have
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: the people in this area so willing to come in
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: and roll this leaves up and get that vaccination. And
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: certainly when they announced that the age was changing to
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: twelve and over, we were inundated with requests from parents
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: who wanted to get their children vaccinated and from some
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: kids as well who also wanted to get vaccinated. So
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: I just think generally the territory has done really a
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: great job, and we are leading the way in many respects,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: but we should be leading the way and celebrating what
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: we're doing and showing other places how to get on
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: top of those people reluctant and getting people on board
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: and showing them that it's not something to be afraid of.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: What's what we need to be afraid of, or is
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: what would happen if COVID got into our communities. We've
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: seen what's happening in western New South Wales in a
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: couple of Aboriginal communities there. At the moment, there's some
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: seventy percent of one community that has been infected with COVID.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: It's just a horrendous situation. We don't want to see
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: that happen here. The only way we can stop. It
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: is for people to get vaccinated well.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Robin Carl, the CEO of the Palmerston GP Superclinic, It's
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: No worries Katie, you have a great day you two.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Thank you