Mandatory vaccines for healthcare workers are "very high on the agenda" for the states and territories after demands from the nation's peak medical body, the Health Minister says.
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The Australian Medical Association has called for vaccine mandates for anyone working at medical centres, including receptionists and cleaners, as soon as possible to combat the highly-infectious Delta strain.
Health Minister Greg Hunt claimed the announcement of a mandate for aged care workers, set to come into effect in mid-September, had seen "skyrocketing" vaccination rates in the sector.
He said the decision to extend mandates to all health care workers was a matter for the states and territories, but the idea had been raised by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
"One [reason] is to protect patients. Two is not only to protect each individual worker, but to protect the workforce from being furloughed," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"So this is now very high on the agenda of the state and territory chief health officers."
The AMA called for state and territory health orders to initially apply to hospitals, before expanding across the wider health system.
ACT AMA president Walter Abhayaratna said limiting mandatory vaccines to healthcare workers who dealt directly with patients would not stop the highly-infectious Delta strain.
"As part of normal hospital function, you have cleaners who clean the room to stop the spread of infectious diseases and make sure that you've got a safe hospital environment," he told The Canberra Times.
"You've got people who are delivering food to those areas. So it's not just about the healthcare workers but every single worker in the hospital who does a function should be vaccinated."
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Covid vaccines were shown to reduce a person's chance of contracting the virus, and passing it on once infected. But the prospect of mandatory jabs in the workplace has raised concerns over employment law and civil liberties.
But Dr Abhayaratna said the AMA had received advice from the Fair Work Ombudsman, stressing concerns over civil liberties needed to take the rights of patients into account.
"It's the right for people who are being looked after in a hospital to know that their carers, and all the people in the healthcare facility, have the lowest chance of transmitting the disease," he said.
"This is not only a public good, but an expectation that people who are working in hospitals are vaccinated to protect those who are actually being looked after: the patients."
Dr Abhayaratna said the measures would also reduce the chance of staff being temporarily sent home over a Covid outbreak.
"They also have to look after each other, because it's a very difficult time to be working in this environment when you've got lockdowns, you've got people being admitted to hospital," he said.
"We've also got 500 plus ACT Health staff who are being furloughed at time to isolate or quarantine."
Employers have been left to navigate the legally-fraught topic of mandating jabs themselves.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison this month confirmed the federal government would limit mandatory vaccination to aged care and quarantine workers. But he also said an employee who "may be in direct contact" with virus could be subject to a "reasonable directive" to get vaccinated.
The issue has yet to be fully tested in court, though Qantas has announced its frontline employees would need to be fully-vaccinated by November, with the remainder facing a March 31 deadline.
It came soon after cannery company SPC announced it would also mandate Covid vaccines for its 450 staff, both onsite and offsite. Its employers were given a six-week notice to get immunised.
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