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The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has recommended vaccines be mandatory for all health workers.Credit:Jason South

The peak group advising national cabinet,the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee,recommended the uniform approach on Thursday to cover public hospitals,public health clinics,ambulances,private hospitals,outpatient services,general practitioners and pharmacies.

The detail of the plan is yet to be released but Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seeking support from premiers and chief ministers to move toward compulsory vaccination for all health workers.

NSW has already imposed mandatory vaccination on health workers while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Friday that all authorised workers,including those in health,would have to be inoculated.

The national definition seeks to cover all those in the national registration and accreditation scheme for health workers as well as all self-regulated allied health professionals and all other individuals who work in those settings.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzardrequired health workers to have their first jab by Thursday of this week and said it was “selfish” for people working in hospitals to refuse to be inoculated against COVID-19.

“If they want to put their patients and their colleagues at risk,well they won’t have a position,” he said.

The NSW rules are applied under the Public Health (COVID-19 Vaccination of Health Care Workers) Order 2021 but there is no equivalent order in Victoria,South Australia,the NT or ACT.

The NSW order does not include GPs but covers all staff at public health organisations,the state ministry of health,the ambulance service,the state pathology,private hospitals and day surgeries.

This includes employees,medical officers,volunteers,contractors,students and other visiting practitioners.

Victoria had no similar order until Thursday night,when it issued the COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Directions (No 4) under the authority of Acting Chief Health Officer Benjamin Cowie.

The Victorian order expanded the compulsory vaccinations already applied in residential aged care facilities and construction sites to apply them to healthcare facilities and education facilities.

The state rules,published on the Department of Health and Human Services website,said workers in healthcare facilities would have to have their first doses by October 29 and their second doses by December 15. The deadlines for workers in education are October 25 and December 15.

The Queensland rules,imposed by the Designated COVID-19 Hospital Network Direction No 3,cover any Queensland Hospital and Health Service or Queensland Ambulance Service worker or contractor whose role includes working in or entering a COVID-19 ward within a COVID-19 hospital.

The Queensland rules also cover those who provide care to people in hotel quarantine and those transporting people diagnosed with COVID-19.

The Western Australian government requires vaccination for all workers who provide health,medical,nursing,pathology,pharmacy,social work or other health support to patients in any healthcare facility in any capacity.

The state’s rules,imposed by the WA Health Worker (Restrictions on Access) Directions No 2,cover ambulance officers as well as students on placement.

The Tasmanian government has imposed a similar mandate under its Public Health Act but there are no equivalent health orders in the ACT or NT.

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