All staff working in Western Australia’s public healthcare system are to be supported by a new COVID-19 screening and testing pathway, with the opening of a dedicated staff hotline.
Minister for Health, Roger Cook said any health staff experiencing COVID-19 or flu-like symptoms, or who suspected they might have been exposed to COVID-19, could call the hotline and be screened over the phone against a set of clinical criteria.
“The call centre is staffed by trained nursing and clerical staff who will screen callers, and then refer them into one of the three COVID-19 clinics located at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fiona Stanley Hospital for testing — or the newly opened Bunbury COVID-19 clinic in the South-West,” Mr Cook said.
“Staff members working within other regional areas will be able to access COVID-19 testing through their local hospitals and health service.”
He said the call centre number would only be promoted internally to WA Health staff to ensure limited resources were appropriately allocated.
“It is important that any WA Health staff experiencing COVID-19 or flu-like symptoms call the staff-only, dedicated call centre in the first instance,” Mr Cook said.
“It is paramount that we have as many frontline staff fit and healthy as possible and they are not inadvertent transmitters of the virus,” he said.
“Given their line of work, they are particularly vulnerable.”
