New plan: Omicron wave looms over Ipswich Hospital

A South East Queensland hospital where staff despaired that the emergency department was becoming a breeding ground for Covid-19 now has five wards dedicated to coronavirus patients, with another facility repurposed into an intensive care unit.

Ipswich Hospital has dedicated five wards to Covid patients, and repurposed an existing facility into an intensive care unit for those who become critically ill as the Omicron peak nears in parts of South East Queensland.

Chief health officer John Gerrard on Monday said Ipswich, along with hospitals in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast were under the most pressure at this point in the pandemic.

He believes the Omicron wave has peaked on the Coast, and is likely to peak in other parts of South East Queensland soon. 

“We won’t know for a week or so when we hit the general peak for Queensland, particularly for southeast Queensland, exactly how high that peak of hospitalisations would be but we were certainly anticipating several thousand people in hospital,” he said on Monday. 

West Moreton chief executive Dr Kerrie Freeman said acute and emergency care is now the focus at Ipswich.

The hospital is now using wards 6C, 4F, 4G, 5F and 7B for Covid patients, and remodelled an endoscopy unit into an intensive care until for those who are critically ill.

“Remaining wards will continue to serve the non-Covid health needs of the community as (we) balance the Covid-19 response,” Dr Freeman said.

Non-urgent elective surgeries and outpatients appointments have been postponed, and a program to provide care for Covid patients at home has been expanded. 

“Each of these changes is a huge body of work for our staff,” Dr Freeman said.

“All of our staff know that, over coming weeks, every one of them will be called upon to respond to the Covid-19 escalation in some way.

Presser

“I am tremendously proud of our staff who are taking the upheaval of COVID-19 in their stride and staying true to their professional calling … (they) are extremely dedicated individuals who now find themselves in the hardest of circumstances but continue to treat their patients with compassion.”

The emergency department at the hospital was under pressure even before the region’s cases began to spike past 10,000.

Earlier this month, a frontline staffer at Ipswich Hospital said the emergency department was “sinking fast”, with no beds available and people infected with Covid treated in hallways alongside other patients.

“We know it won’t be business as usual but we are in an unworkable situation with the hospital at capacity and little possibility of inter-hospital transfers and patients, vital police officers and paramedics exposed to the virus in an unsuitable isolation space,” the frontliner said.

As of January 24, Ipswich City recorded 12,311 cases with Redbank and Springfield Lakes fast becoming local Covid hot spots, recording over 1000 local cases each. 

About 94.8 per cent of Ipswich residents had received their first dose of the vaccine by January 16 although 91.1 per cent were fully vaccinated.

Dr Freeman said during the first two years of the pandemic the response had been different as the department were focused on the relationship between an unvaccinated population and the Alpha and Delta strains.

Tents

“Now that we are dealing with Omicron and the majority of the community has some level of vaccine protection, our response to this outbreak is different,” Dr Freeman said.

“I would encourage everyone who is yet to be vaccinated or eligible for their booster shot to make a booking for that vaccination now.”

An Ipswich Hospital spokeswoman said West Moreton Hospital Service bolstered their operations to cope with an additional surge in cases and moved staff around to fill inadequacies.

“(We) redeployed staff where they are needed most in readiness for the increase in seriously ill COVID-19 patients over coming weeks,” she said.