The State’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Andrew Robinson says it will soon be mandatory for Western Australian health workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to access health facilities for work purposes.
Dr Robinson has approved new Health Worker (Restrictions on Access) Directions, which apply to health care and support workers across health care facilities. This includes public and private hospitals and public health service facilities.
“Mandatory vaccination for the health workforce will be introduced in a staged approach, with workers in the highest risk settings needing to be vaccinated first,” Dr Robinson said.
“From 1 October, health care and health support workers in public and private hospitals will need to have had at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to access tier one facilities. These workers will need to be fully vaccinated by 1 November.”
He said Tier one facilities included intensive care units, high dependency units, respiratory wards, emergency departments, COVID-19 clinics, COVID-19 vaccination clinics and hospital wards with designated respiratory beds in certain regional hospitals.
“From 1 November, health care and health support workers need to be fully vaccinated to enter tier one health care facilities,” Dr Robinson said.
He said that also from 1 November, health care workers would need to have had at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to access tier two facilities, which include all public and private hospitals.
These workers would need to be fully vaccinated by 1 December.
“From 1 December, all other health support workers will need to have had at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to access tier two facilities,” the Chief Health Officer said.
“They will need to be fully vaccinated by 1 January, 2022.
“Also from 1 December, health care workers and health support workers will need to have had at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to access tier three facilities, which include all public health service facilities as well as support services, Department of Health and health service provider sites,” Dr Robinson said.
“These workers will need to be fully vaccinated by 1 January, 2022,” he said.
