NT Health facing a big Covid challenge despite two years to prepare

Covid-ravaged health systems overseas weren’t so lucky to have two years to prepare for the pandemic, but the NT’s hospitals have little to show for it, writes Thomas Morgan.

TO Europeans and Americans, last year was when their healthcare systems faced a reckoning.

Battling a novel virus against which they had no vaccine, their hospital systems were overwhelmed with patients, many struggling to breathe.

Doctors had to choose who to prioritise, with the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions often left with substandard care.

Many healthcare workers themselves became infected. Nurses and doctors died and others are still living with the long-term impacts of Covid-19.

Rather than years, emergency departments in Italy, the UK and the US had just weeks, if that, to prepare for an onslaught.

To outsiders, the Territory’s health system was in an envious position. With no community transmission, those responsible for the handling of our healthcare system had plenty of time to properly prepare for any outbreak of the virus.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner became emotional announcing two of Tuesday’s cases were five-year-old twin girls. Picture: Julianne Osborne

And Territorians had the luxury of being able to go about their lives uninterrupted, until the vaccine arrived.

On Tuesday, we saw the number of Covid-19 cases associated with a new mystery Covid-19 cluster grow to 11, all of whom are Aboriginal Territorians.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner didn’t mince words when describing just how serious the situation was now looking.

“This is a lot of cases, this is a case in a remote community, these are all Aboriginal Territorians,” Mr Gunner said the press conference.

“This makes real every fear that we’ve had.”

Mr Gunner appeared to hold back tears as he announced that five-year-old twin girls were among the nine cases detected in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker meanwhile used the situation to make a point that community housing in places such as Katherine is a particularly dangerous setting for viruses like Covid-19, and especially the Delta strain.

The outback NSW town of Wilcannia shows how quickly Delta can rip through Indigenous communities. Picture: Toby Zerna

Indeed, as the people of Wilcannia, in outback New South Wales learnt earlier this year, the Delta variant can rip through communities with frightening speed.

Over one in seven people in the far west town, or about 150 people, contracted the virus before the outbreak came under control.

Overcrowded housing was identified as a major factor fuelling Delta’s spread through Wilcannia.

With this in mind, frustration is apparent within the ranks of NT Health.

Sources on Tuesday said that RDH runs at 120 per cent capacity at the best of times, which is confronting news to hear when the Northern Territory is staring down the prospect of a major Covid-19 outbreak.

Double-bunking within the Emergency Department – virtually unheard of elsewhere in Australia – is standard practice in Darwin.

Insiders say RDH operates at capacity much of the time. Picture: Che Chorley

The blame for this situation doesn’t lie at the feet of medical professionals, who work their guts out and do the best job they can with what they have to work with.

Rather, serious questions need to be asked about management within NT Health and the government.

How was short-staffing situation allowed to continue through 2020 and into 2021?

Why has double-bunking not been addressed?

Where was the recruitment drive six or 12 months ago to ensure our hospital system could function in the event of an outbreak?

Mr Gunner spoke on Tuesday about how it was “naive complacency” to believe Covid could be kept out of the Territory.

Yet here we are, two years into a global pandemic, with a healthcare system where practices such as double-bunking are still the norm.

It has been only a month since the NT News ran a series of stories highlighting the troubling issues engulfing the RDH.

With one case admitted to the RDH so far, non-essential surgeries have been cancelled as the health system braces for impact.

The cluster currently sits at 11 cases, all in the Indigenous community, and the government is under no illusions the NT is now entering the most troubling chapter of the pandemic.

There’s no way to know whether this is a controlled cluster or the start of a wider outbreak but already NT Health has seen it fit to delay procedures to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

It’s now possibly too late to fix many of the issues faced by the Territory’s health system before Covid-19 hits us.

The real question now becomes, when the next pandemic rolls around, will we be any better prepared?