Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Palmerston GP Super Clinic CEO Robyn Cahill over her concerns around abuse at the vaccine clinic

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Katie spoke with Palmerston GP Super Clinic CEO Robyn Cahill over her concerns around abuse at the vaccine clinic · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now let's move along because there's been a lot of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: talk obviously about the vaccine rollout. When you talk about
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: coronavirus and the opening of the borders. We've spoken on
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  Speaker 1: this show about some of those different measures that are
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in place, particularly the strict vaccine mandate being implemented by
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  Speaker 1: the government that does come into place on the twelfth
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  Speaker 1: of November. Now, as you heard from the Health Minister yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory currently sits at seventy four percent double
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: dose sixteen years and over, with eighty eight percent having
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  Speaker 1: had at least one dose of the COVID nineteen vaccine.
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  Speaker 1: But could we be further along at this point? Well,
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line right now is the CEO
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  Speaker 1: of the Palmerston GP Superclinic, Robin Carl. Good morning to you, Robin.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you going?
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  Speaker 1: Not too bad? Robin? How are the numbers going out
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  Speaker 1: there at the superclinic from your perspective with the vaccine rollout.
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  Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately in the last week or so, numbers have
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  Speaker 2: dropped right off, which has been really disappointing for the
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  Speaker 2: team because we had really hoped we would see an
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  Speaker 2: increase in people coming to get vaccinated so we could
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  Speaker 2: reach those magic numbers, so that we could actually get
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  Speaker 2: rid of a large number of the quarantine restrictions that
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  Speaker 2: are still in place in the Northern territory.
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  Speaker 1: So why do you reckon those numbers have dropped off.
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  Speaker 2: It's been really baffling to us. I guess we had
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  Speaker 2: hoped when the mandate was introduced, and we certainly saw
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  Speaker 2: in the first few days after the mandate that people
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  Speaker 2: who had been putting off getting vaccinated would have gone, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: well now I have to get vaccinated, so I'll go
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  Speaker 2: and get it done. But it seems that the anger
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  Speaker 2: has surpassed well I'm going to go and get it done,
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  Speaker 2: and people have just dug their heels in and if
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  Speaker 2: they're in that group that require to be vaccinated, they're
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  Speaker 2: just holding out to the last possible moment.
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  Speaker 1: And Robin, are you seeing that anger out there at
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  Speaker 1: the Palmerston GP Superclinic. Are people coming in and being
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  Speaker 1: angry towards staff?
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, yes, we are. We're seeing a range of emotions
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  Speaker 2: from people being quite hysterical to people being very very angry,
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  Speaker 2: to the point where you know, we've had some staff
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  Speaker 2: who felt quite physically threatened, and we've had to ask
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  Speaker 2: people to please leave the clinic because whilst we appreciate
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  Speaker 2: that they feel that they've been forced into a corner,
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  Speaker 2: that we actually are here doing our jobs and that
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  Speaker 2: we will do it as best we can and make
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  Speaker 2: them feel as comfortable as we can. But that sort
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  Speaker 2: of behavior really just can't be tolerated.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not on. I mean, are you talking about
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  Speaker 1: people sort of obviously verbally verbally abusing.
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  Speaker 2: Staff, swearing, being quite aggravated. So they I think they
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  Speaker 2: see it as an opportunity to voice their views on
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  Speaker 2: being forced to have the vaccine, and that because they
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  Speaker 2: can't actually talk directly to the people they perceive as
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  Speaker 2: being the people who've created the situation for them, they're
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  Speaker 2: just taking it out on the next available person and
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  Speaker 2: in this case, the staff providing the service.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, Robin, I'm disappointed to hear that. And I'd
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  Speaker 1: actually been contacted by somebody over the weekend who had
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  Speaker 1: said that at some of those other Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 1: run centers that there were similar situations. I'd ask the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police about this yesterday and they responded by
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  Speaker 1: saying the NT Police have not received any reports of
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  Speaker 1: this nature. The vaccination hubs have security arrangements in place,
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  Speaker 1: and police will respond to reports of threats to staff
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  Speaker 1: in those vaccination hubs or any workplace. That was a
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  Speaker 1: response by the acting Commander, Sean Gill. So I'm not
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  Speaker 1: sure have you guys had to call the police out
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  Speaker 1: or anything like that at this point.
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  Speaker 2: So fortunately, to this point in time, we haven't had
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  Speaker 2: a situation escalate point where we've needed to call the police.
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  Speaker 2: I think what's happened is when we've called the behavior
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  Speaker 2: out and said we're really sorry, but you have to leave,
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  Speaker 2: there's been this epiphany with people going, oh, my goodness,
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  Speaker 2: I'm actually taking this out on the wrong person, and
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of me embarrassment, and they've left most
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  Speaker 2: people calm down and just allow us to give the
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  Speaker 2: vaccination for them. I think it's really important for me
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  Speaker 2: to say that we were actually really quite pleased when
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  Speaker 2: the mandate came in because we were very concerned that
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  Speaker 2: there were some people in very critical roles who for
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  Speaker 2: whatever reason, had not had their vaccines yet. And as
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  Speaker 2: healthcare workers, we're quite used to being required to be
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  Speaker 2: vaccinated against a whole range of very illnesses that are around,
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  Speaker 2: so it's just part of the normal routine for us,
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  Speaker 2: and we actually thought it was quite clever because, as
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  Speaker 2: we know, a lot of countries have moved to the
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  Speaker 2: you can't go to a restaurant, you can't go to
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  Speaker 2: a public gallery, you can't go to lots and lots
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  Speaker 2: of things unless you vaccinated, which puts the onus of
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  Speaker 2: verifying the vaccination back on the business signer, which is
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  Speaker 2: really quite difficult. And I can imagine the sorts of
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  Speaker 2: situations we're seeing would be being played out across the
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  Speaker 2: world where people are not wanting to reveal that status.
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  Speaker 2: So when you make it as a worker you have
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  Speaker 2: to be vaccinated, it's much more controlled environment. Employers are
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  Speaker 2: giving the authority to request that vaccination status, they're given
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  Speaker 2: the capacity to actually assist people to get vaccinated. It
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  Speaker 2: made a lot more sense. I think the thing where
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  Speaker 2: it's fallen down a little bit has been the language
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  Speaker 2: that's been used around if you don't get vaccinated, that
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  Speaker 2: makes you u whatever. Has made people quite angry, and
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  Speaker 2: we've seen it with the freedom in Inverted Commas. I
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  Speaker 2: think that's a pretty weird title to put on a
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  Speaker 2: protest much, but we've seen people who are double vaccinated
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  Speaker 2: supporting those messages, so that kind of makes it very
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  Speaker 2: difficult to understand how it's got to this point. So
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  Speaker 2: maybe if we said by this date, if you know,
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  Speaker 2: when we reach that target, we're mandating it so that
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  Speaker 2: we do reach the target, so we don't have to
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  Speaker 2: have people quarantining, So we could be in the position
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  Speaker 2: that New South Wales is in, for example, where people
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  Speaker 2: are now freely flying in and out of the country
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  Speaker 2: to New South Wales and not having to quarantine.
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  Speaker 1: So more it might be amazing more of a character
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  Speaker 1: approach rather than the stick I spise Robin.
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  Speaker 2: Definitely, and I think we maybe part of it is
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  Speaker 2: that we've been locked up now and controlled in a
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  Speaker 2: way that we're not used to in our society for
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  Speaker 2: nearly two years. And we all know that it takes
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  Speaker 2: three months to change about habits, so it also takes
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  Speaker 2: about three months for people to start getting used to
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  Speaker 2: what is something they would ordinarily say wasn't acceptable. So
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  Speaker 2: we've now had a situation where for nearly two years,
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  Speaker 2: we haven't been able to travel freely across our borders,
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  Speaker 2: states and territories. We haven't been able to travel internationally
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  Speaker 2: and it's become the norm, and maybe there's an element
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  Speaker 2: of fear with people thinking, oh, my goodness, we're going
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  Speaker 2: to be able to do that. Now, I'm not sure
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  Speaker 2: if I'm ready for that. So I think if we
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  Speaker 2: gave people some really positive messaging and said we get it,
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  Speaker 2: we are to stand why you're scared, but let us
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  Speaker 2: help you. We'll get you over the line. We'll get
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  Speaker 2: your vaccinated. We'll open up our dates and our territories
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  Speaker 2: in our country to the rest of the world. You
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  Speaker 2: can visit your family, can visit your friends, you can
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  Speaker 2: take that holiday you've been wanting to have for such
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  Speaker 2: a long time, and you can do it without having
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  Speaker 2: to quarantine for fourteen days when you come back. People
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  Speaker 2: maybe would have a different approach to the mandate.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, certainly food for thought, Robin, before I let
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  Speaker 1: you go, just very quickly, any word from your perspective
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  Speaker 1: in terms of when those booster shots are going to
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  Speaker 1: become available.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we already have booster shots available for people who
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  Speaker 2: are eligible. So if you have hit your six months
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  Speaker 2: post your second shot, you can come in and book
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  Speaker 2: in now for your booster shot. We had advice that
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  Speaker 2: whilst officially it was the eighth of November. We were
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  Speaker 2: providing instruction that if we had stock, which we do.
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  Speaker 2: As you know, we've put the call out a couple
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  Speaker 2: of times now because we've had stocks that we were
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  Speaker 2: going to have to discud because we hadn't used it
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  Speaker 2: within the specified time. So we have stock, we have
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  Speaker 2: it available. We're allowed to give booster shots to people
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  Speaker 2: who I have fallen into that it's six months past
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  Speaker 2: my second dose. But it's really important people to understand
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  Speaker 2: that it has to be six months past your second
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  Speaker 2: dose for it to actually give the efficacy that they're
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  Speaker 2: looking for.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Robin Carl, the CEO of the Palmerston GP Superclinic,
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  Speaker 1: always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for having
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  Speaker 1: a chat with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, appreciate the opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you,