Hospital brings back visitor restrictions

A day after warning of emergency department delays, this regional hospital had to bring back Covid visiting restrictions.

A regional hospital has been forced to restrict visitors as Covid and flu cases continue to challenge an under-pressure health system.

Albury Wodonga Health announced the “temporary” change on social media on Tuesday afternoon, one day after warning of emergencydepartment delays due to high demand.

“With increased local cases of colds, flu, and COVID-19, Albury Wodonga Health is making some temporary changes to our visitorpolicy,” the health service posted to social media.

“This is a temporary measure and we will review the changes in 2-weeks.

“We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in helping to keep our patients, some of the most vulnerable within the community, safe during this time.”

Patients will be allowed one adult visitor, or one adult visitor with one child under 12-years-old, for two hours, once per day.

Time limits do not apply to people who need extra support, such as a patient with dementia.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed in early June that multiple regional hospitals had adopted temporary emergency measuresin recent months, struggling with demand, and staff influenza and Covid cases.

HOSPITALS WARN OF DELAYS AS DEMAND SPIKES

Victoria’s health system continues to come under pressure, with several hospitals warning of emergency department delays in recent days amid high demand.

Albury-Wodonga Health warned of delays on Monday afternoon and shared a social media alert for “high demand across all services”, while Ballarat Health published a similar warning hours before.

A Grampians Health spokeswoman said there were “long waits in our Ballarat Base Hospital Emergency Department”.

“Our staff work hard to reduce wait times as much as they can, but in many cases it is unavoidable,” she said.

Angliss, Box Hill and Maroondah Hospitals – overseen by Eastern Health – faced “very high demand” on Sunday with a social media post begging the community to “keep the emergency department for emergencies”.

A Victorian Government spokeswoman said the pandemic’s lingering impact had placed the system “under an unprecedented amount of pressure”.

Ballarat Base Hospital’s Emergency Department is under immense pressure. Picture: Chloe Smith.

It comes as the Australian Healthcare Index revealed Victorians selected emergency department wait times and ambulance ramping as among the top three issues facing the nation’s health care.

Private health insurance cost was chosen by more than 40 per cent of Victorian respondents, followed by mental health care access (40 per cent), emergency department wait times and ambulance response times (both 39 per cent).

The Australian Patients Association (APA) and Healthengine report surveyed more than 11,000 Australians and found 49 per cent of Victorians who had visited a public emergency department were satisfied.

Among the 42 per cent of respondents who were dissatisfied, long wait times was the most common reason.

Healthengine chief executive Dr Marcus Tan said the drop in Australia’s healthcare rating (from 7.8 out of ten in March 2021 to a 7.2 in the latest index) was “concerning”.

“An impending and significant health crisis is on our hands,” he said.

Ambulance ramping is among the top three issues facing the nation’s health care. Picture: Ian Currie

APA chief executive officer Stephen Mason said the current economic struggles meant “it is more important than ever to ensure that Australians can access and afford the health services they need”.

Victorian Ambulance Union general secretary Danny Hill said pressure in other parts of the health system had a flow on effect to ambulance and emergency departments.

“Ambulances are not meant to be a one-stop shop for everything to do with people’s health,” he said.

A Victorian Government spokeswoman said they were investing billions to get the health system “back on track as quickly as possible”.

“Our $12 billion Pandemic Repair Plan includes getting more paramedics on the road, more 000 call takers, expanding emergency departments, and the training and recruitment of up to 7000 healthcare workers to reinforce our health system,” she said.