A Kiwi ICU doctor in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) has now been denied a compassionate exemption three times as she attempts to get a leave pass to visit her dying grandfather.
Fayzah Mutlib travelled to New Zealand on Sunday from Melbourne where she works at a public hospital as a critical care doctor in order to see her grandfather, Abdul, who has terminal cancer.
She has applied three times in as many days for an exemption under the exceptional circumstances category and has had all three applications declined.
Mutlib has been double vaccinated since July and has so far tested negative for Covid-19, but it’s not enough for authorities to allow her to see Abdul, whom she says raised her “like a father”.
Doctors have informed Mutlib her grandfather has only days to live. The family are Muslim and would need need to bury him within 24 hours of his death.
Joint Head of Managed Isolation Brigadier Rose King told 1News after Mutlib was denied a second time that "decisions on exemptions from managed isolation are not easy ones to make and we are very sympathetic to the distressing situations people applying for exemption from managed isolation are in".
"When considering applications for exemption from managed isolation a number of public health required factors are considered, including the country the person has come from, the number of countries they travelled through to get to New Zealand, the number of airports they transited through, the work they may have been involved in before coming to New Zealand, and where and who they intend to visit on release.
"Ms Mutlib’s application was denied as she has travelled from Victoria which is currently considered a high-risk location, where she was a frontline health worker. In her application Ms Mutlib also noted she wished to isolate with other family members. If any of these factors were to change, we would encourage Ms Mutlib to reapply.
"All applications for exemptions are assessed on a case-by-case basis. The threshold is extremely high and exemptions are rare," King said.
Mutlib said the third letter, which she recieved at 6pm Wednesday evening, was almost the same version of the first two rejection letters. Now Mutlib says she needs to gather more information to satisfy the discrepancies she says she keeps coming up against.
“They [MBIE] are not very clear. I mean on the website it talks about exemptions for end of life but despite all the evidence I’ve given them, it doesn’t seems to satisfy them”.
“I’ve been double vaccinated, I have had negative Covid tests, the staff in the hospital will all be vaccinated and I don’t think I’m a risk," Mutlib said.
“At the moment my grandfather is not talking or eating so he’s having IV fluids to keep him alive. As soon as they stop that, he’s going to die."
She said she’s spoken to a lawyer who advised her on what basis her exemption might be granted. Mutlib understands her high-risk job, added to the high-risk state in Australia she’s travelled from, means MBIE continues to decline her applications for compassionate leave to see Abdul.
“I understand if I come from those places and I didn’t have negative tests come back, but because of my job, I have all of that. I have all the evidence to prove I don’t have Covid," she said.
Her plight has now been taken up by Auckland MPs Chlöe Swarbrick and David Seymour on Wednesday prior to the third rejection.
“We’re writing to Ashley Bloomfield, he has the ability to make an exception. I hope that he will listen this time,” Seymour told 1News.
Mutlib says Swarbrick and Seymour have been "so helpful providing letters of support".
Former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has also weighed in on Twitter.
"How come the Kiwi doctor from Victoria trying to visit her dying grandfather is refused permission to exit MIQ 3 times when Australia’s 501 criminals were allowed to fly in from Brisbane last night?" he posted on Wednesday evening.
Mutlib says she's becoming desperate and doesn't know where to turn.
"I’m genuinely coming for a once-in-a-lifetime event. I am never going to have the opportunity to see my grandfather again," Mutlib said.
She says given her role at a critical care worker, she understands protocols around keeping people safe.
"There’s no difference between a nurse visiting my grandfather or me, as long as we are Covid-free and wearing full PPE."
Mutlib says she just wants a couple of hours to see him and would wear full PPE.
It comes as 310 people with Covid-19 are self-isolating at home. The Government signalled a change to MIQ on Wednesday but that has been pushed back to Thursday. It’s not clear if those changes might affect a case like Mutlib’s.
MIQ have advised Mutlib she can re-apply for an exemption.
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