MEDICAL TREATMENT MUST BE GUARANTEED IN OFFSHORE PROCESSING CENTRES

The Turnbull Government cannot ignore their obligation to ensure that refugees in Nauru and PNG continue to receive medical treatment based on the best medical advice.

 

Australian doctors are rightly concerned about the lack of transparency and handling of medical treatment at regional processing centres under the Turnbull Government.

 

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has been without a Chief Medical Officer and Surgeon General since September.

 

Turnbull needs to step up and ensure that someone with the right expertise and right qualifications is appointed to the role immediately – medical decisions are too important to be left to Departmental bureaucrats.

 

In line with this, the Turnbull Government must ensure that refugees remaining in PNG following the closure of the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre have their health and medication needs met.

 

The provision of health services is a basic human need, and Turnbull owes the Australian medical community answers on these issues.