The ACT Government is working on a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in the Territory across certain settings.
The first phase will focus on staff at the highest risk of encountering COVID-19: frontline staff in hospitals, any healthcare facility operated by Canberra Health Services, day hospitals, in hospice, and ambulance services.
The current proposal is that workers must have at least one dose of vaccine by no later than 29 October and a second dose by no later than 1 December.
The mandatory vaccination requirement will be implemented through a new public health direction signed by ACT Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman.
The announcement is in line with Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) advice provided on Friday 1 October, with most other Australian jurisdictions already having moved down this path.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said vaccine numbers in the healthcare workforce were already high in the wake of the mandate.
“Most other jurisdictions have moved down this path,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“The impact on the workforce will be small, if any.”
As at 1 October, more than 80 per cent of ACT health staff have self-reported they have been vaccinated with at least one dose, and 73 per cent said they were fully vaccinated.
“We’re actually quite confident that this number is higher,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The health minister said mandating vaccines benefits employers by allowing them to require staff to tell them.
Consultation began this week with the healthcare workforce and other key stakeholders to finalise the details of the public health direction.
A phased approach to other healthcare settings will be considered in the “coming weeks and months”.
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The government is currently negotiating with unions and industrial representatives the implementation of a mandatory vaccine across the ACT public service more broadly.
“That does include an opportunity for people to be redeployed if they are unwilling to get vaccinated,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Since 17 September, a COVID-19 vaccine mandate has been in place for aged care workers.
Prior to the mandate being announced, the vaccination rate amongst aged care workers stood at 48 per cent before doubling in the space of three weeks.
“By the time the mandate came into effect, we had 99 per cent of that workforce vaccinated and we’re now at 100 per cent,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
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