NSW hospitals struggling to cope with increase in Covid and flu patients

Hospitals are feeling the strain of the latest surge in coronavirus cases, keeping Covid-positive patients in general wards and shunting sick children between facilities.

Hospital patients stricken with Covid are being kept in general wards and sick kids shunted between hospitals, as the Prime Minister warned cases are set to peak within weeks and vowed to reintroduce Covid sick leave payments after a snap national cabinet meeting.

At one Greater Sydney hospital an influx of respiratory cases and crippling short­ages of staff off sick is putting patients at risk.

“It’s worse on my ward than in the first wave — there’s less PPE (personal protective equipment) and less staff,” one nurse said.

“We have a Covid-positive patient in a room with three other patients, and even if there was somewhere to move them, there’s no one there to do it.”

The nurse also said some patients were refusing to take rapid antigen tests.

With Covid cases surging, the Laverty Testing Clinic at Rozelle did a brisk trade on Saturday. Picture: David Swift

At a Central Coast hospital surgeons are routinely cancelling their scheduled operations as they go down with Covid and the flu.

NSW Nurses’ and Midwives’ Association Liverpool branch delegate Melissa Mansell said the soaring number of Covid and flu cases and nurse resignations has made working conditions in the local emergency department “extremely difficult”.

The juggle for beds meant children were often being diverted to other hospitals, while those with Covid were moved from the small isolation room into a neighbouring ward where there was more space.

An empty room occasionally used during surge periods — and for storage — had been opened up permanently for ­patients.

One day last month, the waiting room was so full a nurse set up a trolley and walked around swabbing and ­administering Nurofen and Panadol to the young patients as they waited for “three, four, five, six hours” to be seen, she said.

“Normally the ED (emergency department) has around three to four kids — sometimes 10 if it is busy — but this time there were 35,” Ms Manswell said. “We have been in this pandemic for almost three years and there doesn’t seem to have been any proper planning — and now we have the flu.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a snap national cabinet meeting on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Despite previously flagging the federal budget couldn’t justify more support payments, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese changed his tune on Saturday vowing to reintroduce the $750 paid pandemic leave scheme for those without sick leave.

The cost will be split 50/50 with states and territories for the first time, with an expected bill of $780 million.

Doctors will also be able to prescribe antiviral medications through telehealth, with subsidies for longer appointments.

National health emergency payments for those in severe ­financial hardship will also continue, but the government would not commit to extending free rapid antigen tests.

Cases are set to peak in ­August, Mr Albanese said, as he urged mask wearing indoors.

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]

Originally published as NSW hospitals struggling to cope with increase in Covid and flu patients