David Mark reported this story on Thursday, November 6, 2014 18:14:00

MARK COLVIN: Questions are being asked about how the private company appointed to run Australia's response to the Ebola crisis in west Africa will train its staff.



The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade awarded the contract to Aspen Medical yesterday.



Yet more questions are being asked as to why Australian Medical Assistance Teams, or AUSMAT, are not part of the Ebola response in Africa. Non-government organisations are privately fuming that their months of expertise in west Africa are being ignored in favour of a private company with limited experience in the region.



David Mark reports.



DAVID MARK: Aspen Medical was founded in 2003 by Glenn Keys and Dr Andrew Walker.



Since 2007, AusTender documents show it's been awarded more than $200 million in government contracts from the Department of Defence alone. The Government will pay Aspen $20 million to run a 100 bed facility in Sierra Leone.



On AM this morning the Health Minister, Peter Dutton, was asked why the Government chose a private company for the job.



PETER DUTTON: Well, no different to the approach that's been taken by the Europeans - the Australian Greens and those on the left who have been critical would have been critical of anything the Government did frankly - have adopted a similar model.



So we're seeing lots of private contractors because they've got the capacity and the logistical capacity to deliver very quickly what governments want on the ground.



DAVID MARK: But concerns are being raised about Aspen's ability to manage the situation in west Africa. Richard Di Natale is a Greens Senator for Victoria and a public health specialist.



RICHARD DI NATALE: Aspen could only provide that training if they were doing it in conjunction with some of the NGOs that are already established in the field, and I would be staggered if Aspen had a made a decision to go this alone and to deploy people to the field without working with the NGOs that have already spent months there and have developed protocols and procedures that are designed to keep health workers safe.



So no, I would be very concerned if Aspen essentially made the decision to deploy people directly to the field without working with the existing NGO community deployed in west Africa.



DAVID MARK: Aspen's managing director Glenn Keys told the ABC's Rafael Epstein the organisation does have some experience in west Africa.



GLENN KEYS: We were approached because, I think, we were already on the ground. We're in Liberia. We have been for a number of months. We opened up before the Ebola outbreak occurred. So we've got good experience in north-west Africa, and there's not a lot of Australian companies that do.



And then on top of that, we already do a range of deployed health work, and have done for over a decade. So I think we've got a lot of the requisite skills to do that work.



DAVID MARK: It's not clear if that clinic has been dealing with Ebola patients. PM did contact Aspen, but were told Glenn Keys wouldn't be available for any more one on one interviews until next week.



The company's experience is a concern of some of the NGOs, like Medicins Sans Frontieres and the Red Cross, who have been dealing with the Ebola crisis.



Senator Richard Di Natale says it is appropriate that a private company is involved in the response, but he says it should be seeking assistance.



RICHARD DI NATALE: To simply outsource this to a private medical company and to do that without what appears to be the necessary qualifications, in terms of training and experience that will be provided to other health workers who will be working for NGOs that have got a long experience in this area, does raise some serious questions. It's absolutely certain.



DAVID MARK: Associate Professor Brian Owler is the president of the Australian Medical Association. He's seeking a meeting with Aspen to ask questions about training.



BRIAN OWLER: Well everyone wants to make sure these people are brought home safely. So the training has to be to a very high standard. It does involve making sure that they're well drilled in using the personal protective equipment, but also understand the conditions that they're going to be working under, the things that they're going to confront, and that they have reasonable expectations even about treatments they're going to be able to provide to these patients.



DAVID MARK: Both Associate Professor Owler and Senator Richard Di Natale suggest AUSMAT should be playing a role for Australian in west Africa.



RICHARD DI NATALE: Of course they should. These are the people who are trained specifically for instances like this. That's the whole point of having an AUSMAT team - to have people with the skills and qualifications who can go to the field and can ensure that they're the first responders.



And that's important not just in terms of responding to the situation west Africa, but we need to ensure that AUSMAT health professionals are deployed to west Africa not simply because they're the most appropriate people to respond in instances such as this, but if there was to be an outbreak, for example in our region, PNG, then it would be the AUSMAT team that would be deployed, and without that field experience it potentially exposes us to serious risk.



MARK COLVIN: Greens Senator Richard Di Natale ending David Mark's report.