Bega disability service provider Tulgeen says securing access to rapid antigen tests could be a matter of life or death for its highly vulnerable clients.
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The organisation was speaking out on the lack of RATs available for its support workers, who assist vulnerable community members on a daily basis.
Tulgeen CEO Peter Symonds said support workers across the country were reporting a lack of access to RATs despite having had large back orders.
He said RATs brought peace of mind to support workers so they can work with their client without the fear they might have COVID-19, or be an asymptomatic positive carrier, and pass it on.
"Rapid antigen tests bring the assurance that the people we support will be safe when our people go in, some people may be significantly impacted if infected, as in a life and death situation.
"So for us to be able to assure families that their sons and daughters, family members, brothers and sisters, are going to be safe, it's critical that we have access to those tests," he said.
Mr Symonds reported that they only had access to enough tests to last less than a week, but after that they would be, "scratching around for them like everyone else".
"I don't know the exact number we have available but it would be in the tens at least, and we have orders that are not due to the end of January, perhaps.
"So we are now in a conundrum of how do we deal with this? Do we say to support workers, 'well you look okay and are asymptomatic so you can come to work?"
Mr Symonds meets virtually with other disability service providers around the country and said the issue was not unique to the Bega Valley.
"A colleague spoke about their dilemma up in the Hunter where they have six shared homes with positive cases, but they can't get RATs at all," he said.
He said some providers had even been advised by their suppliers that their RAT orders had been cancelled due to having been requisitioned for use by the government.
Plevey's Pharmacy in Bega was also sent an email on Thursday, January, 13 from their supplier of RAT tests that their order had also been commandeered by the government.
Mr Symonds said that although he'd never point the finger at the bureaucrats, as "they are cogs in the wheel as we are, and as with the rest of the community", those tests were vital for care service providers.
"It is just an absolute shemozzle and at some point my greatest fear is that someone is going to be made extremely ill because of this," he said.
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He was also worried about the ability for Tulgeen day programs to start up again, and especially so without sufficient access to tests for their staff members.
"If you've got autism and you thrive on routine and certain activities taking place at certain times, then stress brought on when you can't do that is significant.
"It won't just be that maybe someone is a bit upset, it can be manifested in all sorts of very significant behaviours of concern," he said.
He said that for other individuals who require 24/7 care, "if the wheels fall off, there will be extraordinarily dramatic outcomes".
"If you require support to turn over, to get out of a wheel chair and onto a bed, to be fed, to be bathed, then not supporting you is just not an option."
Mr Symonds also said he and his colleagues had gotten the feeling that there was undertone of disregard towards the disability and aged-care sectors.
He said he got the feeling they were just considered vulnerable people and there was an attitude that, "well life is just tough, or these people are already crook".
Bega disability support worker Cheryl Robinson shared the sentiment and said she felt a grave outlook for people with additional health issues or needs, reflected in the state government's 'let it rip' mentality in regards to the spread of COVID in the community.
Ms Robinson said she had also been unable to access RAT kits and said some of her colleagues were losing work having to wait five days or more to have their PCR test results returned to them.
Some of her clients also reported heightened anxiety around leaving the house, catching public transport, or not engaging in their regular activities to try to avoid becoming infected.
She said she also communicated regularly with people in the community with disabilities, those underlying health conditions, or those who are immunocompromised and said many of them were feeling very uneasy about the government's approach for COVID to continue spreading so rapidly.
"They [the state government] are trying to go for herd immunity but without the proper provisions in place," she said.