Time to get booster shot

Transcript: AMA Queensland Council of General Practice Chair Dr Maria Boulton, Nine, Today Show with Jayne Azzopardi and Clint Stanaway, Thursday, 24 December 2021

Subjects: COVID-19 vaccinations, testing queues

CLINT STANAWAY:     Okay, let's get more now on that sobering message from Queensland's top doc. Let's bring in AMA Queensland director, Dr Maria Boulton, Maria, good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. Get vaccinated or get the virus - it's certainly a change in tone. Did it surprise you perhaps?

MARIA BOULTON:    Look, I think that's always been the two options, right? And we know that Omicron is spreading very fast in Queensland, we're expecting to be at 1,000 new cases per day by Boxing Day. And the thing that has us concerned is that Queensland is a large state, there are a lot of remote and rural communities. And we know for a fact that what makes the difference between you getting mild or severe COVID is to be vaccinated. So I guess now's not the time to be complacent. Now's the time that, if you're due for your booster, go get boosted. If you haven't been vaccinated, go have a chat to your GP about it. And also let's resource the rural and remote regions. This virus is going to spread and it's going to spread fast. And it's important that every doctor in all those regions has the resources they need to handle the outbreak.

CLINT STANAWAY:     Doctor, there's quite a few concerns this morning. Multiple hospitals in Brisbane have been exposed, including that children's cancer ward. What needs to happen right now to slow the spread?

MARIA BOULTON:      I guess the sobering news in hospitals is that our staff are double vaccinated. It's the same in general practice. I own a GP clinic and we were mandated to be vaccinated and we gladly did it. For us, it's important that people continue to do the right thing, wearing masks, socially distancing, hand sanitising - all those things will help us, because the last thing we want is to be overwhelmed in a hospital.

CLINT STANAWAY:      It really is a change in mindset for Queenslanders - 369 new cases, a big jump from 186 the day before. You've been living without the virus for so long. How are Queenslanders adapting to this new life?

MARIA BOULTON:    Queenslanders have been amazing. There've been so many changes throughout the pandemic. And I have to give a special shout out, given that it's Christmas Eve, to health care workers, as was said before, but I'd also like to add all those health care workers working in general practice clinics. They've been amazing. They've been vaccinating people, they've been helping people through the pandemic. And now we're going to go into a new phase where we're actually going to be treating people who have COVID.

It's been a tough year. And we just ask for Queenslanders to stay with us, to be patient. When you go into a GP clinic and the request is for you to put a mask on, please do it. Please don't argue with the receptionist. She's just there doing her job. And she'll be wearing a mask as well.

CLINT STANAWAY:       I couldn't agree more. One last one on testing. Testing queues, we've seen them growing across Brisbane. We know that PCR travel requirement is still in place and causing chaos in other states. Should it be scrapped?

MARIA BOULTON:    I think that'll be up to the Chief Health Officer. But we're certainly very concerned. I mean, we don't want people's Christmas plans to be disrupted. And we also don't want people who have symptoms to be turned away because there's a very, very long line. So I think they either need to step up more testing sites, or look at what they're doing.

CLINT STANAWAY:      Dr Maria Boulton, merry Christmas.

MARIA BOULTON:     Merry Christmas.

24 December 2021