Concerns about Melbourne-based healthcare students travelling to regional Victoria for placements
Ballarat Health Services will require university students at the hospital to move to a stage 3 lockdown area in order to continue their placement.
Hundreds of nursing and medical students carry out placements at the hospital, a number of which have been travelling to Ballarat from stage 4 lockdown zones in Melbourne.
The hospital has confirmed students will be unable to access their placement on site unless they reside in Ballarat or another stage 3 area.
All of regional Victoria outside the stage 4 lockdown zone is currently under stage 3 restrictions.
In an email to staff, the hospital’s chief executive, Dale Fraser, said he believed the number of students affected would be “very small”.
“We have been monitoring the implications for some time now, and … we have taken the difficult decision to restrict access to BHS for all students travelling from a stage 4 area,” he said.
“Students will be given the option to continue at BHS, but they are required to remain entirely within a stage 3 area for the duration of their clinical placement.
“This decision will apply to all students, including nursing, medical and allied health.”
Mark Yates from the Australian Medical Association said the move was widely supported within Ballarat's medical community.
“If you want to do placements in Ballarat, come here and stay for six weeks, participate in our community,” he said.
“But please don’t go into Melbourne, collect coronavirus, be asymptomatic, which one in five will be, and come back into our community and lead to infections either in our hospitals or other health services.”
Mr Yates said he thought the Department of Health and Human Services need to do more to restrict permits for healthcare students travelling from lockdown zones into regional areas.
“Considering the high risk healthcare workers have to acquiring coronavirus infection,” he said.
“I think it's very sensible for the regions who are trying to avoid community spread and avoid the situation in Melbourne to say, ‘come and stay’.
“We can find accommodation, there are universities with accommodation, there are hotels that are empty."
By Charlotte King
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA4LTEzL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1saXZlLW5ld3MtbWVsYm91cm5lLXZpY3RvcmlhLW5ldy16ZWFsYW5kLzEyNTUzMDQ20gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyNTUzMDQ2?oc=5
2020-08-13 00:53:00Z
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