The Health Minister (pictured above) has told Parliament that he was not aware of any instances where requests for supplies to the National Medical Stockpile (NMS) that met the requirements were not accepted.
As we covered in yesterday’s issue, data from the Department of Health had revealed that 1,500 aged care homes had their requests for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from the Stockpile turned down.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese raised the issue during Question Time with the Minister, but he rejected the claims.
“The provision of PPE has been one of the most significant and important achievements of this government,” Minister Hunt stated.
“These provisions have been consistent, they have been done on the basis of rules set by the medical experts, and we have met all of those requests which meet those requirements.”
The Minister emphasised that all aged care providers that had COVID outbreaks had received assistance.
“The government during the course of this year has acquired over 500 million masks in what has been a global shortage,” he said.
“At a time of extreme global shortage and a spike in demand, we were able to maintain that air bridge for the nation and engage in domestic production.”
“The Government had also distributed 78 million of those masks from the NMS,” he added.
