Doctor anger continues as hospitals falter amid Covid complacency

Frustrated doctors are continuing to sound the alarm over the growing pressure on Queensland hospitals, saying people and politicians are wrong to think Covid is “dealt with”.

The state’s hospital system is “very close to falling apart” according to a North Queensland doctor who said the health industry is “frustrated” with people acting like the pandemic is over.

With the peak of the third wave projected to arrive in the coming weeks, Dr Sandy Donald, anaesthetist at Cairns Hospital and senior vice president of Together Queensland union, said doctors were becoming increasingly worried about how hospitals would cope.

“There’s hospitals that if they haven’t reached breaking point already, they’re certainly very close,” he said.

“People are getting very frustrated within the hospitals to hear people either talking as if Covid is dealt with and gone, or alternatively, saying it’s not their problem.”

While Dr Donald said a mask mandate would’ve made a “significant” change four weeks ago, hospitals are now desperate for Queenslanders to wear one on their own accord.

“Honestly, I’m annoyed at businesses saying they can’t have people working from home. I absolutely agree that businesses don’t need to suffer more than necessary, but the hospital system is very close to falling apart,” he said.

Dr Sandy Donald says some hospitals in Queensland are close to breaking point. File picture: Emily Barker

There’s also major concerns regarding the safety of staff and patients outside of just Covid cases, according to Dr Donald.

“We know that delays in getting patients into the ED and delays in getting them admitted increases the risk to the patient, so there has to be some harm to patients due to the overcrowding and ramping,” he said.

It comes as Deputy Premier Steven Miles yesterday said the state was seeing a smaller “proportion” of hospitalisations than in previous waves.

“While we are seeing large numbers of cases, the number of hospitalisations as a proportion of those cases is much smaller than earlier variants,” he said.

“It’s also the number of those hospitalisations who are needing ICU care is lower. The number of fatal cases as a proportion of total cases is also lower.

“So that was always the strategy – to suppress the virus as far as possible until everyone had the chance to get vaccinated.”

On Wednesday, the state recorded 8209 Covid-19 cases and 19 deaths.

There are now more than 64,000 active cases in Queensland including 1023 in hospital and 26 people in intensive care.

Mr Miles said the government was still within the threshold of “surge planning” that was previously established to cope with a range of surges within a wave.

“I understand hospitals are accessing private hospital beds. They are rescheduling planned care where it’s safe to do so,” he said.

“And that’s allowing them to give treatment to those 1100-odd people in hospital with Covid as well as all other urgent care needs.”

Mr Miles said the modelling released by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was just a projection of “what we know right now”.

“We can all change the modelling, we can all change that curve by following health advice, by using masks, by taking care if we’re vulnerable or around vulnerable,” he said.