The Abbott government has worked to make certain our medical personnel are safe and, if any contract the virus, now have an evacuation plan in place. Labor and the Greens would have, without any thought to the safety of our citizens, sent medical staff into the hot spots with no plan to keep them safe. #auspol #BSWNBPM #sameoldlabor #springst -THE government is set to outsource an Australian medical mission to an Ebola hot spot in West Africa, after agreeing to join the international effort to contain the deadly disease. Tony Abbott is preparing to make the announcement, possibly today, that the government will back the deployment of Australian doctors and nurses to a new field hospital in Sierra Leone. The Prime Minister has resisted pressure to send medical personnel when there is no means of direct evacuation to Australia should they contract the Ebola virus. It is understood the government has reached agreement with a private contractor to manage the deployment, reportedly to a treatment centre to be built by the British in Sierra Leone, one of the nations at the centre of the emergency. Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said hundreds of Australian doctors and nurses would volunteer. He confirmed Australian Medical Assistance Teams usually sent to disaster scenes overseas had not been activated, and the deployment would likely be managed by a private contractor. No details were available last night. A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister insisted Australians would not be deployed to West Africa without a “credible plan’’ to evacuate them. “In recent weeks, the government has discussed the evolving situation, including measures to treat health workers, with our partners, in particular the United Kingdom and the United States,’’ she said. “The government is considering these discussions and how it might best contribute further to the response. Any further Australian contribution would be prudent and proportionate. It would not involve the deployment of hundreds of Australians; indeed, the government will not direct Australians to deploy to the region.’’ The Australian understands Ausmat teams will only be mobilised in the event of an outbreak of Ebola in the Asia-Pacific region. Concern has centred on how developing nations such as Papua New Guinea would cope. The Australian mission to Sierra Leone will be a civilian one, run in conjunction with the British military. It will augment the effort of relief agencies such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, which have sent dozens of Australian volunteers to the red zone in that country, Liberia and Guinea. Britain is believed to have agreed to evacuate any Australian medical personnel who become ill. Professor Owler said there were potentially hundreds’ of doctors ready to go, along with up to 350 nurses. “Treating this problem at sources in West Africa is … the only way to tackle it,” Professor Owler said. “The focus now must shift to making sure those volunteers who are going to do this work get the appropriate training and resources, and contingencies are in place to get them back home safely.’’ As of this week, the World Health Organisation said 4591 people had died in the epidemic.- theaustralian.au/in-depth/ebola-crisis/australia-to-send-ebola-mission-to-sierra-leone/story-fnpqlos3-1227112806833
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 20:29:36 +0000
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