Elective surgery deferred at hospitals as Covid numbers continue to rise
Covid hospitalisations are continuing to grow throughout the country, with one major Australian hospital under pressure.
Covid hospitalisations are continuing to grow throughout the country, with one major Melbourne hospital now deferring elective surgeries as a result.
Government officials and health professionals from across the country have warned of the coming third wave driven by the infectious Omicron BA. 4 and BA. 5 subvariants.
As of Wednesday, there were 4447 people across Australia in hospital with Covid, an increase of more than 25 per cent from just two weeks ago.
These growing hospitalisation numbers have put continued pressure on hospital wards and health staff, who are also dealing with resurgent flu numbers and furloughed and sick workers.
The demand for beds and service resulted in the Alfred hospital in Melbourne suspending some elective surgeries and procedures on Thursday.
“Alfred Health is making some operational changes to ensure we can continue caring for the most critically ill in our community as the number of Covid cases and hospitalisations continue to climb,” it said in a statement.
“These changes include deferrals of some elective surgeries and procedures, limits on outpatient appointments, and the introduction of N95 masks for visitors to wards.”
“If you are a patient affected by these changes, there is no need to contact the hospital - our patient services team will be in touch with you shortly if your planned date for surgery is to be changed.”
Covid hospitalisations have increased in Victoria by more than 50 per cent in the last two weeks alone.
Acting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said earlier on Thursday the government would not be ordering other hospitals to cut elective surgeries.
“Hospitals at a local level are going to make decisions, as they always have in the past, based on the circumstances of the day,” she said.
“There’s some broader advice about how to manage visitor restrictions … but those working closest to their patients or residents are indeed best placed to make that decision.
Melbourne University’s Head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences, Bruce Thompson, said Victorians are being “displaced” in hospitals as a system which already had capacity issues before Covid struggles to cope.
“In 2019 we didn’t have enough beds, and now we have a new condition that didn’t exist before and this is a doozy – it takes up a lot of beds,” he told 3AW on Thursday.
“At the moment we’ve got 740 people in the hospital with escalating pneumonia. We didn’t have 740 extra beds floating around, so we have to displace people to be able to do that or expand the size.”
Mr Thompson said while taking steps like getting vaccinated was important to decrease transmission, there was another measure he wanted Victorians to take up.
“Everyone really needs to start wearing masks again,” he said.
“I really think our leaders need to walk out on television wearing a mask and we certainly are doing it (at the Melbourne School of Health Sciences) because we’ve got to look after our healthcare workers.”
On Tuesday the state government “strongly recommended” that masks be worn indoors and in crowded settings under new pandemic orders and public health advice.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas later revealed she ignored advice from the state’s acting chief health officer, Ben Cowie, to mandate masks in certain settings.
“The chief health officer has provided his advice and I have accepted his advice, except that I have chosen not to extend mandates for mask wearing in some of the settings that were recommended to me,” she said on Tuesday.
“The advice from the chief health officer was to mandate mask wearing in early childhood and school settings, and indeed in retail and in some hospitality settings for workers in those areas.
“I made a decision based on the advice that I had received that further mandating masks was not the most effective way to get the message out about the importance of mask wearing.
“We need to empower Victorians to make their own decisions.”
Victoria’s Covid hospitalisation numbers increased again on Thursday, with 771 in hospital, 34 in the ICU and nine on ventilators.
Victorian Australian Medical Association president Dr Roderick McRae told 3AW on Tuesday that “it beggars belief about how we’ve allowed ourselves to get to this situation”.
He also said “we’ve pretty well established” that some hospitals will need to shut down wards and reduce elective surgery due to the increasing numbers”.
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