Upscaling the healthcare sector, real-time: Australian disability researchers call for a coronavirus response package

The Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health has five relatively straightforward recommendations for equipping the healthcare system to rapidly scale up the healthcare sector’s capacity to care for people with a disability.

Leading health and disability researchers at the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, and University of Sydney have called on federal and state governments to enact a targeted coronavirus response for the disability sector, akin to their medical and aged care packages.

Noting a horrific report of a Chinese teenager with cerebral palsy dying of starvation after his brother and father were quarantined — health officials only fed him twice within the week — the Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health has warned that neither the healthcare nor disability sector is equipped to ensure tailored, consistent level of care for people with a disability throughout the crisis.