Being in Covid a ward is traumatic, Brisbane twentysomethings warn

A 29-year-old Covid-positive Brisbane business professional has slammed the lack of mental health support offered to patients who are whisked by ambulance into hospital as soon as they get a positive test result.

A 29-year-old Brisbane business professional has slammed the lack of mental health support offered to Covid patients who are whisked by ambulance into hospital as soon as they get a positive test result.

The patient, who was caught up in a recent Brisbane cluster, said he feared that “someone would die and it won’t be the virus that kills them”.

“I am speaking out as I am concerned that someone will take their own life. Testing positive it is a traumatic experience — one that I am still dealing with weeks later, “the Brisbane man, who was fit and healthy before contracting the virus, said.

“I was as sick as a dog and ended up on oxygen. I sobbed when I was put into the back of an ambulance and was put into a ward at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. I was petrified that I was going to die,” he said.

“Contact with medical staff was minimal once I had turned the corner with serious illness. I was told to take my own obs, temperature, blood pressure and oxygen levels. I barely had the energy but the staff didn’t want to come into the room.

“I have no complaints about the medical treatment at all I am very grateful they helped me recover but I think Queensland Health needs a better system to mentally support patients whisked into isolation for 14 days while very ill. It all comes out the blue. It is an unknown disease.

File picture: A medical staff member tends to a Covid-19 patient under respiratory assistance, in a room of the intensive care unit of the Henri Mondor Hospital in Creteil, near Paris. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

“It felt a bit like prison. If I didn’t have a phone or laptop I would have been so alone. Visitors, of course, are not allowed. I was lucky I got to see my mum through the window just sitting and watching out for me in the corridor outside. Food is left like you have leprosy. Of course I understand the safety protocols but people are scared and need some counselling,”

The patient said he was given contact numbers to call but feels that an expert should check in on the patients every day while in hospital.

“Also I heard nothing from any one at Queensland Health once discharged. My mental health is cooked from the whole experience,” he said.

Another 20-year-old COVID patient who was taken to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital said she suffers from anxiety said and she used the ward phone to call for psychological help.

“It was 24 hours before anyone checked in with me. It is such an unknown situation you can’t underestimate the trauma you feel when you are isolated and doing it alone,” she said.

A Queensland Health spokesman said they were aware of the importance of looking after mental health and well-being.

“We acknowledge the impacts of COVID-19 and required isolation can be challenging for COVID-positive patients in our hospitals. Our hospitals offer a psychologist, social-worker or specialist mental health nurse check-in for patients as and when they need it. This can be self-identified by the patient and requested, or may be identified by the treating team in caring for the patient,” he said.