The state’s hospital slowdown has cause the waiting list for elective surgery to blow out

New data reveals the full effect of the state’s hospital slowdown, with staff shortages still a major concern.

Head nurse of RMH's Covid ward, Grace Carroll, dressed in her PPE. Picture: David Caird

Victoria’s under-pressure hospitals treated fewer ­patients during the statewide “code brown” this year when they were badly understaffed.

Government data shows the full effect of the hospital slowdown, with 14,000 fewer emergency patients discharged from January to March compared with the same period the previous year.

The waiting list for elective surgery blew out to 89,611 ­patients – the most ever.

Thousands of workers were laid off every day in the first three months of this year as Covid-19 swept through the state.

Victorian Healthcare Association chief executive Tom Symondson said: “We’ve never seen anything like it.”

Ambulance response times were also below target, with two out of three code 1 cases responded to within 15 minutes, slightly better than the previous quarter.

The code brown was declared on January 19 to enable the health system to cope with the Covid Omicron outbreak. It ended on February 14 when restrictions on elective surgery began to ease.

The figures from the Victorian Agency for Health Information revealed the strain on hospital emergency departments where urgent patients, such as those in cardiac arrest, were treated immediately, but just over half of category two patients – with strokes or chest pain – waited up to 10 minutes.

Health Minister Martin Foley said staff shortages were still a major concern.

In the past week, 1500 staff were sent home every day, but earlier in the year as many as 5000 were laid off, Mr Foley said.

The state’s $1.5bn Covid catch-up plan would help deal with the backlog in surgery and other treatments.

‘Highly infectious’ new Covid strain

A highly infectious, new mutant Covid strain has been discovered in Victoria.

A descendant of ‘stealth Omicron’, the BA. 2.12.1 Omicron sub-variant was recently found in a southeast metropolitan Melbourne wastewater catchment.

“Health authorities will prioritise the sequencing of PCR samples from COVID-19 cases in the wastewater catchment area to get a better understanding of the prevalence of the strain,” the Victorian Government said in an update on Friday.

“Early evidence suggests it is more transmissible than BA. 2 but does not cause more severe disease.”

BA. 2.12.1 is a sub-lineage of the BA. 2 Omicron variant, which remains the dominant coronavirus strain in Victoria and around the world.

The BA. 2.12.1 sub-variant has also been detected in the United States, Europe and parts of Asia.

The infectious new Omicron sub-variant is spreading quickly in the U.S.

Between April 16 and 23, 2022, the percentage of COVID-19 cases caused by the sub-variant increased from 19.6 per cent to 28.7 per cent.

It has notably increased in New York, where it accounted for 58.1 per cent of cases on April 23, up from 0.2 per cent in late February.

Chief health officer’s revealing flu jab plea

Chief health officer Brett Sutton has revealed his tattooed “Dad bod”, ditching his shirt entirely while getting the flu jab in a bid to encourage vaccination ahead of winter.

Professor Sutton’s vaccination was filmed by 7 News amid a spike of influenza cases in Victoria and rather than merely rolling up his sleeve, the state’s health chief decided to go shirtless for the cause.

“Even dad bods need flu protection,” he later said in a tongue-in-cheek tweet.

But the flu presents a serious risk to Victorians after two years of lockdowns caused a lack of exposure to respiratory illnesses and a decline in natural immunity, Prof Sutton warned.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton showed off his tattoos while receiving his flu vaccination. Supplied

“We’ve essentially had no flu the last couple of years,” he told 7 News.

“International travel is back, restrictions aren’t there, we’re all moving around a lot.

“We’ve got every opportunity to pick up all kinds of respiratory illnesses.”

Prof Sutton said the uptick in cases had already begun, warning the flu season could come earlier than in previous years.

“We certainly recommend (the flu jab) from now, from April onwards. But we can’t say for sure when the season will be this year,” he said.

“It’s never a nothing illness. Having had two years without it means we don’t have the naturally immunity that we might (normally) have going into winter season.”

“A bad season has 3000 or more estimated deaths in Australia.”

‘Flurona’ fears after shock vax stat

Victorians have been urged to get their flu shot amid fears of a perfect storm of Covid and a ‘rebound’ flu season this winter.

It comes as research commissioned by the Immunisation Coalition revealed nearly two-thirds of adults under 65-years-old do not plan to get their flu shot this year.

Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty said Covid was still circulating, with more than 11,000 new cases recorded on Friday in Victoria.

“We’ve kind of declared the pandemic is over,” he said.

“Somebody forgot to the tell virus.”

Prof Doherty, who received his flu jab at the Immunisation Coalition’s pop-up clinic on Friday, said the medical community was “really worried” about the threat of co-infections.

“If you get flu on top of Covid at the same time, we’re really worried that’s going to be really bad for you,” he said.

“They both infect the lungs and on top of that Covid gets into your blood, goes around your body and infects other tissues.”

Professor Peter Doherty describes himself as a “vaccine tragic” and encourages everyone to get their flu and Covid jabs. Picture: Alex Coppel

The Doherty Institute Patron said the public can downplay the flu’s severity and children under five-years-old, adults over 65-years-old and those with certain chronic conditions are particularly at risk.

“The flu is not just a bad cold. It kills people,” he said.

“It actually does so much damage to your lungs, you can drown in your own lung fluid, which is not very nice. You can’t breathe.

“Flu has always been worst in tiny little kids who have never had flu (and) the smaller a child is, the smaller the airways.”

Data from seven major Australian hospitals for 2017-18 found 84 per cent of children hospitalised for influenza were unvaccinated.

Australian College of Nurse Practitioners president Leanne Boase said they were worried about the flu after two years of Covid restrictions limited the public’s exposure.

“We do have concerns that there will be a rebound flu season,” she said.

“One of the biggest risks … this year is the underestimation of the flu after we’ve all been through Covid.

Covid restrictions and stay-at-home orders meant Australians were less exposed to influenza over the past two years. Picture: Paul Jeffers

“We have been staying at home and we haven’t been circulating but also we are concerned about what strains of the flu (are coming) and the virulence as well.

“We’re in a situation where we’ll have Covid circulating and we’ll have influenza circulating.”

She gave Prof Doherty his flu shot on camera in a bid to encourage others and combat low vaccination rates.

Prof Doherty, who described himself as a “vaccine tragic”, urged those who are yet to get their third Covid shot to do so.

He said he has had his second booster because he is over 65-years-old and “wouldn’t be surprised” if eligibility for a fourth Covid shot was expanded to the wider population.

But he said it was a decision for ATAGI, who would evaluate all the evidence.

Free influenza vaccines are available for at risk groups, including pregnant women, those aged under five-years-old or over 65-years-old, at your local provider.

They can be given at the same time as a Covid jab.