SERIOUS QUESTIONS ON SCABIES OUTBREAK

Member for Kiama Gareth Ward has encouraged the community to follow the advice from our local health district following confirmation of a scabies outbreak in hospitals across the Illawarra-Shoalhaven but has questioned why it took so long to advise the public.

“Local Members of Parliament were summonsed to a briefing today at 10AM by the local health district and I’m grateful for the briefing. However, local media and the public weren’t advised formally until late afternoon. I received a copy of a media release at 4:22PM from the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Health District which confirmed the outbreak,” Mr Ward said.

“I’ve been told confidentially that local health officials have known about the outbreak for almost two weeks, yet the public were only advised today.

“Worse still, the area that appears to be most impacted is the electorate of the Minister for Health who is also the Minister for the Illawarra, but we are yet to hear from him on this outbreak.

“This Minister must answer some very important questions.

• When was the first case of scabies detected in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Health District?
• When was the prevalence of scabies elevated to an ‘outbreak’?
• When was the Minister’s office and the Minister briefed on the scabies outbreak?
• What additional resources will be allocated to our district to deal with the outbreak
• What outreach has occurred to all local schools, aged care and nursing home providers, NDIS support services, GPs and homelessness services?

“Our community suffered enormously through COVID. Surely, our health officials have learned something about how to better communicate with the public and how to deal with a health situation. Given the billions of dollars, the hurt and pain experienced through COVID, surely, we can do better than this.

“I will be pursuing these questions in Parliament this week,” Mr Ward concluded.

ENDS