Ms ROSOL – Thank you. I want to ask a question about COVID. I understand COVID is something no-one wants to talk about any more. It’s had an enormous negative impact on us and people want to forget about it and move on. But there is mounting evidence that the health impacts of COVID are growing and not going away, and ignoring the problem won’t change that. There is research that links even mild acute COVID infections with population‑wide increases in a large number of chronic diseases, which has huge implications for our health system and increased demand we can expect on services going forward.
At a briefing with the acting secretary two weeks ago, we were told demand for health services in Tasmania has increased dramatically since COVID infection became widespread. So, I’m just wondering if you could provide data on the rates of a number of health conditions and I think this might need to be taken on notice, just comparing 2019 and 2020 rates of some diseases and 2023-24 rates of diseases.
I have a list here of those, including heart disease, arrhythmias, mood disorders and anxiety, strokes or blood clots, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, including type 1 diabetes in children, Strep A, and we also know that increasing cancer has been linked with COVID infections as well.
So, are you able to provide data on the rates of those health conditions across those years before COVID became widespread here and now, please.
Mr BARNETT – A very detailed question.
Ms ROSOL – Yes, it is.
Mr BARNETT – Something that we would need to take on notice, I would say in response to COVID, as a government we invested very heavily. I want to pay tribute to the former premier Peter Gutwein and minister for health at the time Jeremy Rockliff and others within the Health department. But, across the Department of Premier and Cabinet, across the government, it was an incredible effort and supported by many around this table and elsewhere.
So, I just want to pay tribute to that because that was about saving lives and saving livelihoods, and those were at the forefront of everybody’s mind during that difficult time. There is still, very much, in the community, a focus certainly through the Department of Health, the Tas health service, a focus on COVID-19, on flu, on RSV vaccination program. We’ve had the Health department’s Winter Wellness Campaign.
So, it’s very much important, particularly for those at risk, those over 65, those in a high risk category, and we do Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander groups, for example. We do take it very seriously and there’s a lot more, well, there’s a lot that we are doing and a lot more that can still be done. In terms of the detail of your question, we’ll need to take that on notice.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you.
