Category: Need to Know

Please find updates below around COVID-19 and the VIC mask supplement payment.

Vaccination update:

There are a plethora of stories circulating around the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. We urge you to obtain trusted and reliable information from the Department of Health COVID-19 vaccines website, and subscribe to receive the COVID-19 Vaccines Updates.  We will keep you updated on this site when relevant guidelines are provided by the authorities.

CovidSafe Practices:

Whilst our team endeavours to provide you with the latest updates and guidance, ALL Providers are reminded of their responsibility to follow Commonwealth guidance, and state and territory government requirements and directions, on the use of PPE and CovidSafe practices during the delivery of care. This is essential to protect yourself and our clients. 

We also request that you continue to advise us immediately if any services are not provided due to any clients having contracted Coronavirus or if they have received instructions to isolate.

Mask supplement payment:

When COVID-19 arrived and changed our landscape, your safety, and that of our clients, was our immediate priority.

To ensure that our clients were able to receive continued care, delivered in the safest possible way, we didn’t hesitate to take the temporary measure of covering the costs for Personal Protective Equipment (surgical masks) that was deemed necessary for service delivery in areas identified by the authorities. We communicated this process with you via email on 17^th July and 24^th September 2020.

As per our email update on 11 December 2020, when we advised of the removal of the mask supplement for NSW, Care Connect have now reassessed this provision for Victoria, and the mask supplement will now be removed for any services that are delivered from Monday 8 February, 2021.

If you have any queries or require any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch via email at procurement@careconnect.org.au.

Kind regards,
Eileen Keane
General Manager, Service Delivery Partnerships

Effective immediately - surgical masks must be worn when delivering ALL services in the following QLD LGAs: Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and the Redlands (or if providers are from these areas and delivering services elsewhere).

18 December, 2020:  Given the recent COVID outbreak, for the next week we instruct you that: Immediately: masks must be worn inside the home or on the property of the client until further notice You should continue services unless you hear otherwise from Care Connect.

The Department of Health has advised that Softmed surgical masks have been impacted by a defect alert that can be found on the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) website.   This alert affects level 2 and 3 Softmed surgical masks.

FRAMEWORK FOR NATIONAL REOPENING RELEASED BY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH The Framework for National Reopening builds on the 3-Step Framework for a COVIDSafe Australia, to nationally reopen to a state of ‘COVID Normal’, wherever it is safe to do so, by December 2020.