Television interview with Minister Butler on Weekend Today

Read the transcript from Minister Butler's interview on Weekend Today which covered the free RSV vaccine available from 3 February and more.

The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care

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SOPHIE WALSH, HOST: Well, it's a virus that hospitalises 10,000 Aussie babies every single year. But from next month, mothers and newborns will be able to get free access to the RSV vaccine in a world leading approach.
 
CLINT STANAWAY, HOST: For more on this exciting news, Health Minister Mark Butler joins us from Adelaide. Minister, thanks for your time on Weekend Today. So why now? Why is the government making this major investment today?
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Over the next couple of weeks, you're right to say we'll be rolling out the world's most comprehensive protection programme for our babies against RSV. And the reason why we're doing it is: RSV is the biggest cause of hospitalisations of newborn babies we have in Australia. Every winter, around 12,000 babies go back to hospital, after being born healthy babies, within a matter of weeks or a few months. Often their parents have to take the baby back to hospital, and a quarter of them end up in the intensive care unit. So we're rolling out this vaccine programme for mums to be able to take. It's recommended that they take in their third trimester, and we want them to consider doing that at the same time they'll usually get the whooping cough vaccine. Those antibodies then pass through the placenta to the foetus, and the babies are born with antibodies that protect them for the first precious few months of their life. And we think that will cut the hospitalisation rate from about 12,000 a year by 10,000 - a huge relief to parents, but also a relief to a pressured hospital system.
 
WALSH: Absolutely. And there's nothing scarier than being a new parent and having your baby have to be rushed to hospital. I applaud this move. It's outstanding. Moving on Minister, Queensland nurses are this morning sounding the alarm on critical workforce shortages right across the state, leaving some to fear for patient care. Is enough being done to attract and keep healthcare workers in the profession?
 
BUTLER: Obviously state governments are thinking about how they staff their hospitals. We churn out a lot of nursing graduates through our universities. We have some of the highest trained nurses on the planet. We're very lucky. We're blessed with the quality of the nurses we have in Australia. But keeping them in the workforce has been our challenge for quite a while, and it's been a particularly pointed challenge, frankly, since Covid. So I know state governments are thinking about their wage arrangements, their conditions, to ensure that they are attractive employers for nurses. But we're thinking as well about how we maximise the number of nurses in aged care. This is a growing sector. We've got a policy to make sure that every nursing home has at least one registered nurse in it, 24/7. That's a new arrangement, but it has also raised the demand for nurses in aged care. But we also want them in general practices because they can provide great support for doctors to provide care at a primary care setting as well. So look, there is a huge demand for nurses in Australia. There's a huge shortage of nurses across the world. And I know state governments like Queensland, but across the country, are thinking about how they make their hospitals an attractive workplace.
 
STANAWAY: Minister, have you set up your campaign office yet? Um, a lot of talk around that an election will be called potentially today. I mean, the PM is out in western Sydney today. We know that. Any word from the PM on when we're going to the polls?
 
BUTLER: It's a long drive from western Sydney to the Governor-General's residence, so I wouldn't necessarily be thinking it's going to be called today. But ultimately that's a matter for the PM, I know we're all ready to go. There will be an election over the next few months, and it's going to be an incredibly important election for the country, particularly for our healthcare system.

ENDS

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