More than 600 Frankston Hospital staff in isolation after coronavirus outbreak
A huge number of staff at a major Melbourne hospital have been forced to isolate after a serious COVID-19 outbreak left more than 40 staff infected.
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More than 600 hospital staff are currently off-work due to a COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne’s southeast.
Peninsula Health today confirmed 618 staff have been furloughed due to an outbreak at Frankston Hospital.
This includes 44 staff members who have tested positive for the virus.
In a statement the hospital confirmed a number of wards, including the Acute Medical Surgical Unit, Surgical Short Stay Unit and 5GN had temporarily ceased admissions as a precautionary measure.
The hospital’s cardiology, mental health, ICU, maternity and acute medical surgical wards continue to accept admissions.
Chief Executive Felicity Topp said they were doing “all we can” to stop further spread.
“The safety and wellbeing of our staff, our patients and our community is our utmost priority,” she said.
“As such, we are casting a very wide net on our contact tracing process resulting in the furloughing of 618 staff across the service.
“We are being supported by a number of our local public and private hospitals, GPs and primary care providers to ensure we continue to provide our community with seamless care.”
The hospital said that all discharged patients who have been determined a close contact have now been contacted and asymptomatic testing of all staff and inpatients would continue across the service.
The hospital has also enlisted the help of “highly skilled” infection prevention experts and additional assistance, as well as a review of COVID-19 practises.
Ms Topp said infection prevention practises and contact tracing of both staff and patients had also been boosted.
It is not yet clear how the outbreak began.