Pat McGorry says people quarantined in hotels must have adequate mental health support.Credit:Kathryn Junor
"If you're restricting someone's liberty,you have got a duty of care to keep them safe,"he toldThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age.
"There would be some people at higher risk than others,people with a past history of mental health problems."
Thousands of Australians have been bussed to city hotels for amandatory 14-day quarantine period after returning from overseas as the government works to stop the spread of coronavirus. Many have complained of a lack of access to fresh air,exercise,laundry facilities or cleaning products and poor-quality food.
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Paul Finlay,a doctor who was screening the first returning travellers sent to hotels in Sydney,said he had flagged more than a dozen people with pre-diagnosed mental and other health problems that he believed should have been exempted from hotel detention. But he said it had taken more than a week of being confined to their hotel rooms for some of these patients to be released.
One returned traveller,who asked not to be named,said he had post traumatic stress disorder after surviving the 2015 Nepal earthquake"on the fifth floor of a hotel room with windows that didn't open". Within hours of being quarantined at the Hilton in Sydney,he had suffered flashbacks and a panic attack,the Bondi resident said.
He said it was three days before he received mental health support – a psychologist who spoke to him over the phone.