1000 NSW Health workers sacked or quit after refusing to be vaccinated

Almost 1000 NSW Health workers have resigned or been sacked after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, placing further pressure on the hospital system that has seen coronavirus patient admissions almost triple within a fortnight.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Friday that, while he “expected a difficult few weeks ahead” for the health system, hospital admissions and intensive care patient numbers were tracking well below worst case projections released last week.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said that, despite health system pressures hospitalisations and intensive care admissions were below projections in modelling released last week.Credit: Kate Geraghty

About 2500 people with COVID-19 were in hospital on Friday, up from 900 early this month, as the NSW government announced tens of thousands of essential workers would be exempt from the state’s strict close-contact rules as the state moves to combat the fallout from the Omicron wave.

“The tracking ... is very reassuring and encouraging, given where we sit today in the pandemic,” Mr Perrottet said.

As hospitals and general practices are slammed with surging cases, and almost 6000 healthcare workers are isolated across NSW due to COVID-19 exposure, the state’s health department on Friday confirmed to the Herald that 995 of its 170,000-strong workforce had resigned or been stood down after refusing the vaccine.

A NSW Health spokesman said 325 people had resigned, while a further 670 had “ceased employment” with the department.

The 995 people, or 0.6 per cent of the workforce, are a mix of clinical and non-clinical workers, with some coming from the department’s corporate staff.

“The importance of having our workforce vaccinated has never been more evident than during the current difficulties presented by the Omicron variant, particularly with the high number of COVID-19 cases in the community and subsequent presentations and admissions to our hospitals,” a NSW Health spokesperson said.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was disappointed that a small percentage of health staff had refused to get vaccinated.

“Every frontline health worker is invaluable. It’s sad and unfortunate that a very small number of staff, out of the more than 170,000 health staff have declined to be vaccinated and therefore could not continue to care for patients,” Mr Hazzard said.

“The risk factor for patients and other staff was always the problem and the reality is 99.4 per cent of the staff were vaccinated and they shouldn’t be put at risk by having to work with people who have made a decision that is their entitlement but not the desirable one in the health setting.”

Despite NSW’s Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant saying up to half the population could contract Omicron, Mr Perrottet remained steadfast there was no alternative but to “push through” and accept the presence of the virus.

Mr Perrottet this week said he was confident children would be back in classrooms for the start of term one, but a return-to-school plan is yet to be unveiled with pupils set to return in less than two weeks. NSW teachers and childcare workers are so far not included on the worker exemption list.

“What I will say is that we’ll have kids back in school on day one, term one, in an environment that is safe for teacher and for students. That is our number one focus,” he said.

Mr Perrottet said NSW was working closely with Victoria to develop its back-to-school plan, which will be announced next week. While he was confident the state would soon have adequate supplies of rapid antigen tests ahead of schools returning, he said the government was yet to determine how they would be used.

A large supply of rapid tests were expected to arrive over four days next week, he said.

There were 2527 coronavirus patients in hospital with the virus on Friday, including 185 in intensive care. While fewer than 5 per cent of people are not vaccinated in NSW, non-vaccinated people make up 50 per cent of those in ICU.

Modelling released by NSW Health last week estimated the state would reach a peak of 4700 COVID-positive hospitalisations by late January, and, in this scenario, 273 patients would be in intensive care.

But a severe nurse and doctor staffing shortage, with thousands of healthcare workers off sick or isolated, has forced NSW Health to mobilise a surge workforce including shifting administration staff who are normally desk-bound to hospital wards, asking intern doctors to start work ahead of schedule and fast-tracking nursing graduates into hospitals.

The Herald understands that, if intensive care admissions edge close to 1000, private hospital intensive care wards would be used to cope with demand.

A senior Westmead Hospital doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that about 15 per cent of the hospital’s staff are unable to work each day because of illness or isolation.

“Staffing furloughs and the need to separate COVID-19 patients from others has become incredibly difficult,” the doctor said. “On every shift. beds are closed because staff are off. There has been a serious underestimate of how the spread of the virus would just take out huge numbers of doctors and nurses. On top of that, some hospitals are struggling to obtain any rapid tests.”

As another 63,018 cases were reported on Friday, with at least 9000 reported in south-western and western Sydney. Mr Perrottet said that, despite health system pressures, hospitalisations and intensive care admissions were below projections in modelling released last week.

Dr Chant estimated that, while up to half the state’s population could contract Omicron, not all would have symptomatic infection or even know that they’ve been infected.

“There are still people that have not experienced or been exposed to Omicron,” Dr Chant said, noting it was vital as many people as possible received three doses of a vaccine before being exposed.

Roughly 1.5 million people in NSW have received a booster shot, about 20 of the population aged over 18.

On the second day positive rapid antigen tests were included in the state’s daily infection numbers, Friday’s new recorded infections included 37,938 that were self-reported from at-home tests and 25,080 from PCR testing.

Mr Perrottet said more than 40 per cent of the eligible population had received a booster shot.

About 63,800 children aged 5 to 11 have received a first dose, representing just under 9 per cent of the population in that age group.

“It is incredibly pleasing to see that [booster] effort has continued, particularly over the summer break when many people have been on holidays; to be in a position today where over 40 per cent of people have received their booster shot is incredibly encouraging,” Mr Perrottet said.

One NSW healthcare worker unauthorised to speak publicly said they were pleased to see the government moving to sack unvaccinated staff.

“If you’re a healthcare worker and you don’t believe in COVID-19 vaccines and evidence-based practice, then good riddance,” they said.

With Nigel Gladstone

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