COVID-19 Alert 27 September 2021- Updated movement of healthcare workers guidance

Update: Movement of Healthcare Workers guidance

The Department of Health has updated the guidance on healthcare worker movement.

These changes remove the requirement to wear an N95 in any work setting for 14 days after working in a COVID streaming area.

Movement between any areas of Monash Health or across healthcare facilities
Healthcare workers (clinical and non-clinical) working in COVID streaming or non-COVID areas may work in different hospitals or health settings (if daily attestations and surveillance testing are in place).

• A three-day furlough and negative test are no longer required.
• Wearing an N95 as a minimum for two weeks after the move, regardless of work setting, is no longer required.

You must wear appropriate PPE for the context you are working in at all times.

Movement from a hospital experiencing an outbreak or exposure
If you are identified as a primary close contact as a result of an outbreak in your workplace, you must remain in quarantine and furlough for 14 days, unless advised otherwise by Infection Prevention or SEPHU.

If you are working at a site experiencing an active outbreak (as advised by the Monash Health Medical Director Infection Prevention), movement to another site is discouraged but may occur where a risk assessment has been undertaken and approved by Infection Prevention.

Movement from a hotel quarantine site
If you have undertaken a placement, worked at, or volunteered at a hotel quarantine site, you must not work at Monash Health within 14 days, unless you have:

• completed three consecutive rostered days off and returned a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of your first Monash Health shift
• provided evidence of the negative test result before commencing work at Monash Health

If you have been released from hotel quarantine yourself, you must not return to work at Monash Health for at least seven days after completing quarantine, and only once you have returned a negative COVID-19 test seven days after leaving hotel quarantine.

Movement between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria
Travel to/from metropolitan Melbourne and rural/regional areas to provide healthcare services is permitted, as long as you have not been advised to self-quarantine and have not been based at a health service experiencing an active outbreak in the previous 14 days. This includes visiting medical, nursing and allied health clinicians, and junior doctors undertaking training rotations.

 Managers must undertake a risk assessment of the transmission risk posed by each worker (particularly those presenting from a designated COVID streaming hospital).

Visiting healthcare workers must comply with surveillance testing requirements, wear appropriate PPE at all times and adhere to other restrictions aligned to your primary residential location (i.e., as an authorised worker, the public health restrictions related to your place of residence ‘go with you’).

Healthcare workers joining Monash Health for an extended basis (such as new rotating junior doctors or new employees transitioning from regional Victoria) must return a negative test within 48 hours of transitioning to Monash Health.

Employee workplace declarations
All employees must complete an Employee Workplace Declaration. This is a state requirement for all healthcare workers.

Thank you for your ongoing dedication and care.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive