News article
A Ministry of Health review has recommended removing the requirement for a dedicated managed isolation and quarantine facility (MIQF) health workforce and allow MIQF workers to work in other health settings without restriction.
The new policy will allow non-MIQF healthcare workers to fill MIQF health workforce gaps and correspondingly, MIQF healthcare workers to work in non-MIQF settings where and when as required, to support management of the current community outbreak.
This change in policy will take effect from Thursday 21 October 2021.
The amended policy reflects the public health risk profile of MIQF healthcare workers while improving the flexibility of the MIQF health workforce to support (and be supported by) the wider health system workforce.
The Ministry considers the risk of fully vaccinated MIQF healthcare workers being infected with COVID-19 – or being a source of onward transmission to the community – to be both low and manageable with the range of risk mitigations currently in place.
In addition to vaccination, these mitigations include frequent surveillance testing, robust IPC practices (including the use of P2/N95 particulate respirators in all returnee-facing zones), improvements to ventilation systems, and the enhancement of health assessment processes to maximise the use of remote ‘tele-health’ methods and limit face-to-face contact with returnees.
With these mitigations in place, the Ministry is confident that MIQF healthcare workers present a low public health risk as they go about their normal lives in other work settings and in the community.
The change also responds to the significant additional strain on MIQF health workforces in Auckland and Waikato as they support community cases and contacts in MIQ. The previous policy was exacerbating this strain by preventing non-MIQF healthcare workers from filling gaps in the MIQF health workforce.
The original policy for a dedicated MIQF health workforce was implemented in August 2020 and was intended to provide another precautionary measure to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 to the community via the MIQF health workforce.
Healthcare workers are well-trained in infection prevention control (IPC), and over the past 18 months, the MIQF health workforce has become highly skilled and meticulous in IPC practices.
This is evident in the low numbers of MIQF healthcare worker transmissions to date. Since August 2020, there have only been three cases of in-MIQF transmission to MIQF healthcare workers – one in August 2020, and two in October 2020.
In allowing the MIQF health workforce greater flexibility, the policy change will support the ongoing engagement of MIQF healthcare workers. Attracting and retaining this specialist workforce in the MIQ system is a priority in our management of the pandemic. This change will enable the workforce to develop a broader range of skills through work in other clinical settings, as well as ensure that the wider health workforce is able to support the MIQ system as required.