Radio transcript: Mandatory vaccinations

Radio transcript: AMA Queensland Chair of Council of General Practice Dr Maria Boulton spoke with Rebecca Levingston from ABC Radio Brisbane, 1 November 2021

Subject: mandatory vaccinations for health care workers. 

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Today the Australian Medical Association in Queensland is pushing to have the vaccine
mandate extended to all health care workers across the state. Dr Maria Boulton is the Chair of the AMA Queensland
Council of General Practice. Dr Boulton, good morning.

MARIA BOULTON: Good morning, Rebecca.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Hospitals are reportedly running already over capacity. Can Queensland afford to lose 2,300
staff?

MARIA BOULTON: I don't think we have a choice. I think, above all, we must think about the patient safety. And
also, it is a disaster if a staff member gets sick. That means that everybody around them can be exposed. And that
would lead to further problems. So the best way to keep hospitals running is to have vaccinated staff working there.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: What's your understanding of why several thousand staff don't or won't be vaccinated?

MARIA BOULTON: Like with everything, I think there's a little bit of hesitancy around. We know that about seven to
eight per cent of the population is very, very hesitant about vaccines. That's to be expected. But also, if they could all
please just have a chat to their GPs, and we're always happy to have a chat about their concerns, and hopefully
answer their questions.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: What are the grounds for a legitimate vaccine exemption, Dr Boulton?

MARIA BOULTON: They're very, very few actually and ATAGI lists them on their website, and they basically include,
for example, anaphylaxis to a prior COVID vaccine. And there's three vaccines around in Australia, so anaphylaxis – a
severe allergic reaction – to one does not preclude you from having the other two. Also, there are some people who
perhaps are going through cancer treatment who may have to have their vaccine delayed by a week or two. Or there
are some people that have certain heart conditions where you just need to delay or perhaps consider another
vaccination. But there's actually not that many criteria or that many illnesses that that give rise to an exemption.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: So heart conditions, going through cancer treatment, or a prior anaphylactic reaction to a
vaccine. Have you issued any exemptions yourself?

MARIA BOULTON: No, I haven't. And I don't know that many of us have at my clinic at all, actually. And you know,
when you read the detail on the ATAGI website, I've had a few people come in and say, I've had this heart condition
and I had a diagnosis, does that preclude me from vaccination? And when you read the details of what’s exempt, I
found out that that particular patient wasn't exempt. So we were able to have that that discussion and the patient
went ahead with a vaccine.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Dr Maria Boulton, Chair of the AMA Queensland Council of General Practice. From today
90,000 Queensland Health staff are required to be vaccinated. Interested to hear from you, if you work in health, does this affect you and your workplace? If you've got a view to share, love to hear it … you work in Queensland Health, what's the attitude to vaccines? And potentially some changes today if 2,300 staff who have sought an exemption won't be able to work. And what impact will that have, Dr Boulton, like, where are those staff? Because they're people who are dealing directly with patients, right?

MARIA BOULTON: Yeah, we've heard that those staff will be redeployed if they have an actual exemption. That's the
information that we've been given. You know, there will be areas that will need more staff and that’s across
Queensland Health. But for example, in my clinic, a private clinic, all my staff are vaccinated, and thank goodness,
right, because say, for example, if one of them gets sick, that puts all the rest of the staff in jeopardy. And it also may
mean that we may have to close our clinic for a few days, which means that we can't provide our patients with the
service as well. And, you know, in general practices, we see babies, we see people who are going through cancer
treatment, we see people who are immunosuppressed. And I think that they deserve to be protected as well. There
are some kids who cannot be vaccinated yet, all those under 11. And I feel safer as a parent, taking my child to
someone who’s vaccinated compared to somebody who isn't.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: You're calling for the vaccine mandate to be extended to all health care workers across the
state. What does that mean in practical terms?

MARIA BOULTON: The same as in Queensland Health, basically, that all health care workers in private health care
clinics would need to be vaccinated as well. And we did a survey of all our members, and our members are very
supportive of this, and 97 per cent of our members have already had at least one dose. So that's how much support
there is for us.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Can I just raise another set of circumstances? I don't know if this would fit into health care
workers. Do you count disability care workers in there as well? Someone's gotten in touch with me over the
weekend. It's a family whose adult siblings were linked to an exposure site. They had to quarantine at home. They
have intellectual impairments. They could not get carers to come to their home, they need disability support workers
for basic functioning at home. And this family are very, very worried about when the borders reopen, and there
being more COVID cases, and then questions about if people are quarantining then, what happens if you can't get
disability care workers to come into people's homes? Do you think disability care workers should be vaccinated too?

MARIA BOULTON: I personally think so. I personally put them together with the people who work in aged care
facilities. And they were one of the first people who got offered the vaccine as Phase 1a when it first rolled out,
because we know that they care for very, very vulnerable people.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Just a quick question from Margaret on the Gold Coast, who says are unvaccinated people
allowed to visit people in hospital?

MARIA BOULTON: That's a great question. And I've seen that question pop up on social media. And I said I would
take it up and ask Queensland Health. I don't know the answer to that. We've got a state meeting tomorrow, and I
was going to pose that question at that meeting.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Okay, be very interested to know the answer, because it's, yeah, it's stressful. It's almost
similar to the conversation we've had about, you know, supermarkets saying their staff have to get vaccinated. And
then the retail workers union saying, well, if we’ve got to be vaccinated, customers should be. So if all health workers
have to be vaccinated, should all visitors be vaccinated? Would you like that to be required, proof of vaccine in order
to visit?

MARIA BOULTON: Look, it's a really, really great point. And I think that it's something that we must think about,
especially as the borders open. I think there's a lot of things that will crop up in the next few months as our borders
open. It's the same thing with general practice. What happens if you have someone who's double vaccinated, but
they have symptoms? So these are all the things that that we need to work through and see where it will land and
hope that in the end it just keeps everyone safe.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Dr Boulton, we’ll keep in touch. Appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. Dr Maria
Boulton, Chair of the AMA Queensland Council of General Practice.