ACT Health shouldn't determine the public interest to suit them

There is no doubt this important information would have prompted people, particularly young people, to book in their vaccination appointment as COVID started to circulate around the city.

But if the same situation happened today, nobody would hear about it.

Because while this was once deemed in the public interest to health authorities in Canberra, it no longer is. Or so we're told.

Officials claim if they were to even hint at the fact a man in his 20s was in intensive care due to COVID they would be in breach of the Health Records Act.

Even the most nondescript information, such as two of four people in intensive care being unvaccinated, would apparently breach patient confidentiality.

The territory's acting chief health officer, Dr Vanessa Johnston, on Friday said while the information may not identify the person to the wider community it could be identifiable to those who knew someone in intensive care.

Setting aside the fact if somebody knows someone in hospital they generally know the reason why they have been admitted and information on their personal history, it's a bit of stretch to use this as an excuse to prevent information from being released for the sake of someone's identity being revealed to a handful of people.

This explanation doesn't exactly pass the pub test.

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Nearly eight months ago our city was plunged into lockdown due to only one case. We were told we needed to stay home to curb the spread. Our way out of lockdown was to get vaccinated and Canberrans heeded that call with great enthusiasm. We placed great trust in our authorities.

Now we are in a situation where daily case numbers are more than 1000 and we get basically no information, beyond daily figures updates, on patients hospitalised due to COVID-19.

Given it has dominated our lives over the past two years, the public has a right to know if they are at risk and make decisions based on this. This information can help in influencing people's behaviours and decisions around whether to wear masks, get their booster shot, avoid crowded venues or to work-from-home.

Particularly as we've been told living with COVID means it's our personal responsibility to keep ourselves protected.

Dr Johnston on Friday said ACT Health would be willing to release a detailed overview of hospitalisations this year as the data set was larger, but there was no indication this would be provided on a regular basis as was the case in other states.

The ACT's health authorities have essentially determined what's in the public interest without any real consultation with the public.

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