In the mist of the COVID-19 response, many Australians and Australian companies are looking to see how they can help their communities. It is seeing this element of the national response that makes me proud to be an Aussie.
Healthcare workers are one group may are focusing on trying to help which is great. As a Healthcare worker myself it is humbling, it also makes me very aware of just how many other people are out there working supporting our communities; if I had my way you’d all be recognised too.
Optus has offered 3 months free network access to Healthcare Workers and Vodafone has offered 2 months access. It’s unfortunate for Telstra that they did have not – as yet – joined with other two larger carriers, but I guess that’s Telstra’s prerogative.
There is a rather large caveat in these offers from Optus and Vodafone, though: both offers are only available to practitioners registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority (AHPRA). While this is great for the registered clinical Staff, it leaves out many others who we would consider healthcare workers.
Let me assure you that a hospital needs everyone to operate: nursing, allied health and medical staff can not do their jobs without the daily and at the elbow support from administration, operational, technical and trade staff.
In other environments, there are many people who would be considered healthcare workers – assistants in nursing, disability workers, dental nurses, health assistants, orderlies, ward clerks and many, many others – who aren’t AHPRA regulated, and thus aren’t eligible for these offers.
That said, we at Ausdroid – and especially Scott and I who work in healthcare – thank every single person who is going out day after day to keep Australia running.
OPTUS
Optus already has its process up and running for registered health practitioners wanting to opt into the free offer. Head on over to the Optus webpage and you will be able to register for consideration in the program. All you need to do in provide you account details and AHPRA number and within 5 days you will be contacted to advise if you have been approved for the offer.
Give us a shout out if you get accepted, it would be great to know how many Australian Healthcare Workers are getting approved.
VODAFONE
Vodafone seems to have been caught on the back foot by Optus’ offer, but we commend them for stepping forward to offer their registered Health Practitioners customers two months free service.
At this stage, there’s not much info on how to take up this offer; you could call Vodafone or visit them in store (if safe) to discuss, but we’d recommend waiting for further details to be made public. We’d anticipate a similar process to Optus’ but it’s a case of wait and see.
Once again, we thank Optus and Vodafone for doing their bit to support our community during this time, and we recognise every Australian for playing their part, whether that’s staying at home to stop the disease or heading in to a hospital to fight it.
If we all do our part we can move forward to recovery sooner and with less loss of life.
Stay safe. Stay home.
And,sigh, us scientists doing the actual testing have no AHPRA registration either. However, while all healthcare workers (including myself) are getting respect. We have our jobs and don’t need the free stuff. Give that to those that have lost their jobs please.