A test of Queensland Health’s ability to fly an Ebola patient to Brisbane has been hailed as a complete success by chief health officer Jeannette Young.
“We ran an exercise … in which we successfully transferred a person from Roma who said they had Ebola symptoms,” she said.
“We transferred them from Roma through to the infectious diseases ward in Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
“It was all an exercise – they were playing a role, they didn’t of course have any symptoms.”
A number of people across multiple agencies were involved in the exercise.
Dr Young said Queensland authorities now believed they could move anyone from anywhere in Queensland to a Brisbane isolation ward within a 12- to 18-hour period.
“I always thought we probably do this but it was great to see that we could actually do it,” she said.
“I got to see how the plane came in and the unloading of the person from the plane in the ISO-POD into a Queensland ambulance remaining in the ISO-POD.
“I was there to see them coming through the hospital into the infectious diseases ward.
“The early advice I’ve received is everything went to plan, they didn’t find any problems with the process.”
Dr Young said it was only people in the early stage of the disease who could be moved.
“But anyone in that early stage we’d be able to safely and successfully move,” she said.
Call to extend visas of students from Sierra Leone
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Community in Queensland has called on the Federal Government to extend visas for foreign students currently studying in Australia.
The group’s spokesman, Aiah Thomas, said Sierra Leone was being ravaged by Ebola and it would be inhumane to send people back into infection zones.
“Their visa has run out, they have finished their studies and they are required to return home – what happens to them?” he said.
“If we are not confident to send volunteers to Sierra Leone and Liberia and New Guinea to help out, then cab we be confident to force students to return home?”
Yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed the Australian Government would help staff an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone and would commit up to $20 million toward the centre.