Updated advice for Queensland aged care providers

Published 8th April 2021

Brisbane City and Moreton Bay Region LGAs are declared as Restricted Areas for the purposes of the Aged Care Direction effective immediately.

For residential aged care facilities in those areas this means:

• general visitors are not permitted,
• residents may only be permitted to leave for certain reasons, and
• increased use of PPE in line with the Moderate Risk PPE Guidance.

More information

Visitors are restricted to residential aged care facilities within the restricted Local Government Areas of:

• City of Brisbane
• Moreton Bay Region

Despite these restrictions, persons may enter a restricted residential aged care facility if they are:

• an employee, contractor or student of the facility
• providing goods or services necessary for the facility’s operation
• providing health, medical, personal care or pharmaceutical services to a resident
• administering a COVID-19 vaccine to a resident
• visiting an end of life resident
• required for emergency management, law enforcement or to comply with an order of any court or tribunal of Australia
• a prospective resident or a support person of a prospective resident
• maintaining continuity of care for a resident that can’t be delivered by non-contact means – with permission of the facility’s operator.

Any person (other than a resident) permitted to enter a restricted facility must not enter, or remain on, the premises without wearing a single use surgical face mask. A person does not have to wear a mask if it will create a risk to their health or safety.

Providers are encouraged to stay up to date via the QLD Health website.

Vaccine rollout

Please note that these restrictions will not affect the rollout of vaccines to impacted facilities and teams will comply with Queensland government public health orders including wearing the required PPE to protect residents and staff while administering vaccines.

PPE

Aged care providers are asked to ensure they have a sufficient supply of PPE, to use their own supply of PPE first and to request extra supply as and when needed. If you urgently need PPE and cannot source it, please submit an online application. The application will need to be completed for your request to be considered. The Commonwealth is prioritising requests for PPE from the National Medical Stockpile to aged care services that are most in need.

Further information and advice

Please visit the Australian Government Department of Health website for information and resources to assist in preparing and managing a COVID-19 outbreak including what to do in the first 24 hours of an outbreak in a residential aged care facility.

Source:
Unknown Author, 2021, Department of Health (https://www.health.gov.au/)