Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with AMA Australian Medical Association NT President Dr Robert Parker

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Katie Woolf spoke with AMA Australian Medical Association NT President Dr Robert Parker · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Eight nine four one one oh four nine is the
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  Speaker 1: number if you'd like to call through. If you do
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  Speaker 1: want to send us a text message zero four one
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  Speaker 1: eight nine five seven three six nine. As you would
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  Speaker 1: be aware, there's obviously the COVID nineteen vaccine is set
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  Speaker 1: to be rolled out in the territory basically from next week.
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  Speaker 1: How are you feeling about it. I'd be very keen
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  Speaker 1: to hear from you whether you are somebody who's going
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  Speaker 1: to go and get that vaccine, whether you're feeling quite
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  Speaker 1: comfortable and confident, or whether you're still feeling a little
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  Speaker 1: bit worried because there you know, I guess most vaccines
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  Speaker 1: or most other you know, medicines that are on the
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  Speaker 1: market or that we end up taking for various reasons,
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  Speaker 1: are on the you know, sort of go through those
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  Speaker 1: testing processes for quite a long and vigorous amount of time.
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  Speaker 1: It seems as though this one's come on much faster. However,
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  Speaker 1: we know that it was really required, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: think we'd all agree that the sooner that we can
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  Speaker 1: roll this vaccine out obviously the better. And last night
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  Speaker 1: the government introduced the legislation to ensure the COVID nineteen
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  Speaker 1: vaccine is rolled out say and effectively across the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: The Medicines, Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Amendment Bill for twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty one was introduced on urgency now. It does allow
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  Speaker 1: the immediate changes well for all registered practitioners who are
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  Speaker 1: qualified and trained to provide those immunizations to administer COVID
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  Speaker 1: nineteen vaccines to territorians now. The Health Minister said in
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  Speaker 1: Parliament last night that the change in legislation will mean
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  Speaker 1: that professionals are able to go to communities to administer
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine as well. So it does mean that some
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  Speaker 1: of our territorians that are in more remote areas will
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  Speaker 1: hopefully not have to travel around too much to get
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine. It will be something that will be able
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  Speaker 1: to take to them. Now, joining me on the line
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  Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about this is the
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  Speaker 1: head of the AMA, the Australian Medical Association here in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, Doctor Robert Parker. Good morning, doctor Parker.
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  Speaker 1: We know that the vaccine is going to be well
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  Speaker 1: getting rolled out from as early as next week. From
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  Speaker 1: your perspective, how's it all going to work?
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  Speaker 2: Well? Again, there's national guidelines as to the people who've
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  Speaker 2: got first priority, and then other people after that, and
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  Speaker 2: you know whether they get the fires of vaccine, which
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  Speaker 2: is complex because of the temperature issues around it, or
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  Speaker 2: the Astrosenica vaccine. So I mean, I think the plan
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  Speaker 2: is for all frontline health work as we get first
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  Speaker 2: access to the fires of vaccine and then other groups
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  Speaker 2: depending on vulnerability and city. There would be a lot
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  Speaker 2: of indigenous territoriums to get access to the probably a
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  Speaker 2: higher access to the other vaccine. Probably that will mean
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  Speaker 2: astrasenic because of the issues about temperature control in the
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  Speaker 2: more rural and remote areas.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had wondered that whether it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: difficult to roll out to some of those more rural
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  Speaker 1: and remote areas. I know that last night in Parliament
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  Speaker 1: they put through on urgency changes to the Medicines, Poisons
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  Speaker 1: and Therapeutic Goods Amendment Bill, hopefully meaning that they are
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  Speaker 1: able to allow those registered practitioners who are qualified to
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  Speaker 1: provide the immunizations out in some of those more remote locations.
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  Speaker 1: But doctor Parker, it's going to be logistically quite a
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  Speaker 1: difficult process, isn't that.
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  Speaker 2: Well. My understanding is they've had pretty high level meetings
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  Speaker 2: on strategies for this. I mean, you know, in many
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  Speaker 2: ways the territory for other vaccinations is one of the
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  Speaker 2: best faquds in Australia in terms of shoulder vaccinations remote
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  Speaker 2: rural areas. So I think the Health Department has a
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  Speaker 2: fairly good adaptability for delivering vaccines. And particularly if you're
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  Speaker 2: dealing with a vaccine such as the astrosenmical one which
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  Speaker 2: probably has less temperature control issues, I'd imagine there'll be
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  Speaker 2: a fairly successful strategy for delivering that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, to put it into perspective, I guess for our listeners,
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  Speaker 1: you know how many territorianes ordinarily might get the get
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  Speaker 1: the flu JAB each year, and then how many you know,
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  Speaker 1: how many vaccines are we trying to roll out?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I can't give you data on the
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  Speaker 2: flu vaccine and percentage, but I imagine it's reasonably high.
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  Speaker 2: And again because of the vulnerable indigenous population, I'm pretty
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  Speaker 2: sure most of the Indigeno's population are vaccinated against flu. And
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  Speaker 2: I suppose the target is every territory and would get
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  Speaker 2: or I think children. Not sure we've got true about
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  Speaker 2: the because for children, but every adult in the territory
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  Speaker 2: will get access to do one of the COVID vaccines.
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  Speaker 1: And how are the health professionals feeling about, firstly about
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  Speaker 1: being the first in line obviously to get to get
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it probably won't be the health professionals. It's the
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  Speaker 2: people at the airport, the people at the Howard Springs,
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  Speaker 2: as the bus drivers. My understanding is that the first
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  Speaker 2: priority are the people who've got direct day to day
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  Speaker 2: contact with people who potentially were COVID, and I think
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  Speaker 2: the health professionals are a second or third. I understand
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  Speaker 2: after that it's vulnerable viduals and nursing homes are like,
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  Speaker 2: and then potentially are the health workers. But I think
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  Speaker 2: the first priority is actually anyone like cleaners, hotel staff, whatever,
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  Speaker 2: who have day to day contact with potentially people who
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  Speaker 2: affected with.
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  Speaker 1: COVID, Which seems fair enough and quite reasonable, really, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, I mean obviously it's a very sensible strategy
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  Speaker 2: to do.
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  Speaker 1: Adapt And then when you talk about our vulnerable and
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  Speaker 1: also those well, you know, whether you're talking about remote
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  Speaker 1: communities or whether you're talking about those in aged care homes,
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  Speaker 1: you know, how important is it realistically for us to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that these people are able to be vaccinated
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  Speaker 1: really sooner rather than later.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's essential because obviously the data is showing that
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  Speaker 2: these people, if they get COVID, much more likely the
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  Speaker 2: softer catastrophic consequences as a result of it. So protecting
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  Speaker 2: vulnerable individuals is a very high priority obviously.
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  Speaker 1: And doctor Parker, I know that there are still some
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  Speaker 1: people in the community who've got some concerns about the vaccine.
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  Speaker 1: You know, maybe they're a bit worried because it's been
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's sort of been rolled out or been approved.
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  Speaker 1: I guess probably more the correct way of putting it
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  Speaker 1: more quickly than what, you know, than what other medicines are.
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  Speaker 1: But really this has had to go through a very
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  Speaker 1: stringent process to get to this stage, hasn't that.
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  Speaker 2: And that's right, there's very good data. The TGA is
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  Speaker 2: a sort of national guardian, I suppose of standards medication,
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  Speaker 2: and they've obviously approved the vaccine. So once it's got
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  Speaker 2: the TGA ticket of approval, I think there's no problem
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  Speaker 2: with safety. Yeah, so I'm going to be one of
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  Speaker 2: the first in line when my turn come. I'll tell you, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: do you reckon?
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  Speaker 1: That's really you know, what people need to sort of
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  Speaker 1: to understand here is that you know, our health professionals,
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  Speaker 1: people like yourself who've worked in medicine for an awfully
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  Speaker 1: long time, you know you're more than happy to go
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  Speaker 1: forward and get it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you didn't realize the consequences of it, and I
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  Speaker 2: think most I think most individuals are out the media
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  Speaker 2: now about what the COVID experience is like. It was
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  Speaker 2: not just surviving. I just read an article the other
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  Speaker 2: day of a journalist and co Cambridge. You survived the experience,
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  Speaker 2: had a pretty awful time of surviving it and has
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  Speaker 2: now long term consequences from it, with weakness in his
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  Speaker 2: arms and lead I think, problems with smell. So you
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  Speaker 2: know that the problem is not just the survival of
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  Speaker 2: the experience, but then you often get long term consequences
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  Speaker 2: from having the virus itself. So it's a pretty awful
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  Speaker 2: virus and we need to control as soon as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And doctor Parker, aside from you know, aside
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  Speaker 1: from the vaccine rollout, things have been going pretty well here.
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  Speaker 1: I guess once the rollout happens, we'll all see how
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  Speaker 1: it goes. But hopefully it rolls out fairly quickly and smoothly.
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  Speaker 1: But we've been, you know, managing things quite well here
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  Speaker 1: at the moment. I know that we've obviously managed to
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  Speaker 1: stay quite safe. I guess you'd have to say that realistically,
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  Speaker 1: the government's done quite a good job in terms of
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  Speaker 1: controlling the COVID spread.
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  Speaker 2: They're doing a great job in terms of COVID OK
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  Speaker 2: but they're not doing it. But they're doing an awful
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  Speaker 2: job in terms of back of control. There's just been
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  Speaker 2: an article published some of Australia's leading health researchers but
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  Speaker 2: show that half of Aboriginal people over forty five died
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  Speaker 2: from tobacco related causes. And so in the territor I'm
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  Speaker 2: trying to get the actual death darted for the market.
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  Speaker 2: I'm writing a letter to every anti parliamentarian. But it
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  Speaker 2: means last year probably about three hundred Territorians or guide
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  Speaker 2: from smoking related causes. Wow, you know, and that's appalling.
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  Speaker 2: And the end of her mind, you listen, is that
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  Speaker 2: the AMA is for five years in a row is
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  Speaker 2: one of the AMA the astral Ward for the Parliament
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  Speaker 2: is leased for smoking reform in Australia. So while we're
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  Speaker 2: way ahead of the game with COVID, we're way behind
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  Speaker 2: the game with smoking reform, and I mean, yes, we
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  Speaker 2: people aren't dying from COVID, but they're certainly dying from tobacco.
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  Speaker 2: And we're with this new data coming out, we're very
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  Speaker 2: strongly urging the Parliament to act, you know, because it's
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  Speaker 2: killing people's constituents. These are parliamentary into a responsibility to
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  Speaker 2: the constituents and tobacco is for the obviously killing them.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's time that Parliament stepped up and did
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  Speaker 2: something about it.
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  Speaker 1: Dr Parker, what are some fast you know, like, what
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  Speaker 1: are some quick things that realistically our Northern Territory Parliament
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  Speaker 1: could maybe look at implementing to try and combat this.
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  Speaker 2: Well again, I've suggested, you know, increasing the minimum mage
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  Speaker 2: for tobacco, looking at potentially prescription of tobacco so you
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  Speaker 2: know which my medical people probably won't take.
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  Speaker 1: Me for that.
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  Speaker 2: You know that if you've got a tobacco addiction, you
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  Speaker 2: get a prescription for it rather than just getting out
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  Speaker 2: over the counter. But there's probably very significant issues that
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  Speaker 2: this substance is killing territory into the higher rate. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, there are people more expert in the field
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  Speaker 2: about tobacco control than me. But I think it's emerging
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  Speaker 2: issue that the government needs to address.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think sometimes too, doctor Parker, that obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we to use a medical term. We need to triage
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  Speaker 1: different different issues and obviously COVID's at the forefront at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, but realistically we can't drop some of these
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  Speaker 1: other things either, can we.
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  Speaker 2: Well no, and you know, given the fact that tobacco
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  Speaker 2: is obviously killing a large number of Territorians every year, well, well,
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  Speaker 2: COVID is not. Congratulations again to the government and Health
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  Speaker 2: Department or their COVID control measures, but it seems like that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, tobacco as a leading cause of death for
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  Speaker 2: Territorians is slipping under the radar while we're keeping a
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  Speaker 2: very close watch on COVID.
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  Speaker 1: Well, doctor Robert Parker, I always enjoy our chats. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with me this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Coadie.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. That is doctor Robert Parker there, who is
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  Speaker 1: the head of the a m A, the Australian Medical
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  Speaker 1: Association here in the Northern Territory. The President