Inside our hospitals: Can the Mid-North Coast cope with a Covid-19 outbreak? Hear from the experts
Healthcare professionals preparing for a Covid-19 outbreak — should one occur on the Mid-North Coast — explain how they will battle the spread.
Mid-North Coast
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For 550 days health care workers across the Mid-North Coast have been planning for the potential spread of Covid-19 into our hospitals despite a the region being free of a single case for more than 475 of those days.
Every working hour doctors, medical staff and allied health care professionals have been planning together to strategise how, when, or if Covid-19 will reach Mid-North Coast hospital ICU units.
Paul Craven, medical controller for Covid-19 across the Hunter New England, is at the forefront the effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 into Mid-North Coast hospitals.
He says there are a number of factors in determining how well planned the healthcare system is across the region to manage the potential for a virus outbreak.
“Have we got the buildings [hospitals] ready? Have we got the screening and swabbing ready at the front doors, and have we got our EDs set up so that we can actually isolate a patient and not infect everybody?
“Yes,” he said, “we know what we are doing there.”
“Then we move on to the ward structure. Have we got that right? Yes – we’ve got space and yes we’ve got plans if we get too busy in the wards.”
Then comes intensive care.
“We’ve got a plan around intensive care and where we care for our patients,” Dr Craven said.
“At Manning [Base Hospital] they’ve got an intensive care unit which is great, but we realise it’s got limited beds, limited staff, and patients would often be better cared for at the John Hunter Hospital and some of the larger hospitals because they are very intense those patients and they take a lot of staff.
“The other thing is, have we got the equipment. Well, we’ve had opportunity to put ventilators in place and we’ve got great PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) which are probably among the best in the world.
“We’ve got the monitors, devices and pumps that we need and we’ve got our staff vaccinated as much as we can.”
The last thing he said which is necessary in curbing any outbreak, is the right people.
“Hunter New England employ 17,000 and they’ve all come together – all of them – to support each other,” he said.
“Manning is a fabulous area for that. If Manning has to do something, they do it. In a regional town you don’t have a bigger group of people to pull on but they always come together to support each other and their community.
“We train people to work in multiple locations so that they have the skills required to undertake duties, whether it be at the front door or on the wards.
“With the right space, equipment, staff – I think we’re doing a great job.”
He said working in a demand-driven environment breeds unnecessary public criticism, and people should take more care about how they respond to issues involving health care.
“A lot of people are quick to criticise but what a lot of people need to understand is that we have one of the best healthcare systems in the world,” he said.
“We’ve been able to manage [Covid-19)] and positive patients particularly well.
“Health always gets a lot of criticism from a lot of people … We need people to come together, to work together, to manage this pandemic.
“If we are all pointing the finger at one another, playing politics, criticising, we’re not going to get through it. The only way we’re going to get through it is working with each other. Kindness and compassion.
“I think it’s time we woke up to the fact that we’re all doing a fantastic job. When you need healthcare, we’re there for you.
“We need people behind us not against us.”
Should an outbreak occur in the region, Ben Uprichard – regional chief executive officer Mid-North Coast Forster and Mayo private hospitals, said his facilities are open to offer support for the state’s health care needs.
“The conversation we’re having is that we’re very much going to remain a ‘clean hospital’ in the private sector, and the public sector, places like Manning Base, would be the hospitals that would take any positive cases of Covid patients or suspected Covid patients,” he said.
“If they become a ‘dirty hospital’ so to speak with Covid then we would be able to take their clean patients – that would be our support that we would provide. We would treat their clean patients and provide health care them to them.”
He said it remains a priority for both Forster Private and Mayo Private Hospitals, at Taree, for staff to remain as healthy as humanly possible.
“We’ve set up the Covid clinic drive through testing centre at Forster Private,” he said.
“We are getting access to testing and fast turnaround times as well.
“Keeping the workforce safe is our biggest challenge and we can’t afford to have the workforce out of action for extended periods of time.
“Ensuring staff are Covid negative is a priority.”
Mid-North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD) chief executive Stewart Dowrick said the situation of a potential outbreak is constantly being monitored across NSW.
“The Mid North Coast Local Health District has pandemic plans in place and has undertaken extensive preparations for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, in the event that cases are identified locally, “ he said.
“This includes expanding Covid-19 testing locations, working with community and local business to promote the importance of checking in to and out of venues using QR codes to support public health contact tracing activities, and opening two COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie.
“There is currently sufficient ICU capacity for all patients who require intensive care, with more than 500 beds available throughout the system.
“As part of its comprehensive planning for its pandemic response, NSW Health has the capacity to quadruple its current ICU capacity across the state if required.
“There would also be ventilators available for each of these ICU beds … the MNCLHD also has plans in place to significantly increase its ICU capacity.
He said everyone in the community is reminded to observe physical distancing, practise good hand hygiene, get tested even if symptoms are mild and stay at home if unwell.
The NSW Government has committed more than $4 billion to the NSW health system to manage the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020.
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