PM Confirms Staff Treatment Centre For Ebola, Sierra Leone

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed an earlier report from the ABC that the Australian Government will support medical workers going to West Africa to fight Ebola.

While Mr Abbott said the Government would not be directing health workers to go there, it would be contracting a private Australian company, Aspen Medical, to staff the centre. The Government is also committing up to $20 million to a 100-bed treatment centre, currently under construction in Sierra Leone by the United Kingdom - the UK has agreed to treat any Australians working in the area.

Mr Abbott said the Government has been especially concerned that Australian personnel going to affected African nations should have appropriate treatment and evacuation services.

"In the past few days we have had assurances from the United Kingdom that they would treat any Australian who is working in the Ebola-impacted parts of West Africa as though he or she were a citizen of the United Kingdom," Mr Abbott said.

About 240 staff are expected to run the centre, which Mr Abbott said he hoped would be operational by the end of the month.

"There will be some international staff and some of those are likely to include Australian-paid volunteers," Mr Abbott said.

He also said that the Governments priorities still rest in protecting Australian borders from Ebola.

"The last thing anyone would want to do is to have personnel going to Africa, coming back to Australia and acting as carriers for this horrible disease ... I think the Australian people expect our priorities to be prevention at home, preparedness in the region, and work in the wider world and that's what we are doing as part of our campaign, to be the very best possible international citizen," he said.

Aspen Medical said in a statement that they have had a strong presence in North West Africa for several months now, and that they are "known for [their] healthcare service to the Australian Government in the Solomon Islands".