Government outsources medical mission to private company as Tony Abbott says some staff are likely to be Australian
Australia will provide $20m for a private medical company to operate a UK-built treatment centre in Sierra Leone, following persistent calls for the country provide practical help to contain the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.
Tony Abbott said some of the 240 staff required to run the 100-bed centre were likely to be Australian “paid volunteers” – but the government would not compel anyone to perform this work.
The prime minister has come under political pressure to deploy health experts to the region, but resisted such action without guarantees that volunteers would have access to medical care and evacuation in the event they contracted Ebola.
Announcing the new measures on Wednesday, Abbott said the British government had agreed “in the last few days” that any Australian health worker who contracted the virus would be treated “as though he or she were a citizen of the UK”.
He said the Ebola outbreak in west Africa was “a very serious health crisis” but the Australian people expected the government’s priorities to be prevention at home, preparedness in the region and a global contribution.
The prime minister said the government would provide up to $20m for an Australian company, Aspen Medical, to run the UK-built medical centre in Sierra Leone until mid next year.
“We are not sending people over. We are ensuring that, thanks to Australia, there is a 100-bed treatment centre that’s staffed and run in Sierra Leone,” Abbott said.
“We anticipate about 240 staff will be required to do the job. Most of them will be locally engaged. Some will be international and it’s quite possible, even likely, that some will be Australian. But Aspen will be looking after, with the assurance of the UK government … any treatment or evacuation that might be required for international staff working in this treatment centre.
“I stress, this is a health emergency. It’s not a military emergency, for instance, which is why we have contracted a private health provider to do this, which is in keeping with our response to other overseas health emergencies such as cholera in our region.”
In addition to the $20m to run the centre, Abbott pledged a further $2m to help Australia’s regional neighbours such as East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands with preparations to deal with any Ebola cases.
The government also will provide $2m to a humanitarian agency, RedR Australia, to fund the deployment of technical experts to non-frontline roles in the UN’s Ebola response.
Abbott said the $24m in new commitments would bring Australia’s total financial contribution to $42m.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said he was pleased the government was “finally making an overdue first step” to help contain Ebola in west Africa.
But he argued the government had not done enough “to help tackle this scourge at its source”.