State’s worrying Covid-19 statistic

The Victorian government has unveiled a plan to tackle the health crisis after it was revealed the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 increased by 99 per cent in a matter of weeks.

There has also been a 60 per cent rise in Covid ICU admissions and nearly a 50 per cent increase in workforce furloughs during that same period.

Infections are expected to soar even more as modelling suggests the spike will peak in mid-August.

These issues have put pressure on hospitals already struggling with bed availability, while numerous ambulance code reds have been declared this year due Covid and flu-related staff shortages.

It led to the state government announcing a $162m package on Sunday which will place 400 additional specialist staff into 12 major hospitals across Victoria.

These new workers will be made up of offload nurses, triage doctors and discharge coordinators to support a health system that had more than absent 10,000 staff in the first week of July alone.

Premier Daniel Andrews said this program, based on a system used in Leeds over in the UK, was designed to help offload, assess and treat patients more efficiently and quickly.

“These investments are part of our plan to support our healthcare workers and get Victorians the care they need,” he said.

“Giving our nurses and doctors an extra pair of hands and making improvements that help patients flow through our emergency departments faster will ensure Victorians get the care they need faster as Australia faces a difficult winter.”

It comes after the Albert Hospital in Melbourne’s south announced on Thursday it would be deferring some elective surgeries and procedures due to rising Covid cases and hospitalisations.

The Alfred will be one of the 12 hospitals that receives the additional specialised staff.

Other measures included the package were two new two paediatric GP respiratory clinics just for kids at Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Children’s Hospital, and a trial between Ambulance Victoria and some public and private hospitals where private hospital emergency departments will support all patients.

Stage three of Victoria’s Health System Winter Response was also enacted, unlocking additional measures like using the capacity at private hospitals to support public patients and converting more hospitals to tier one streaming services.

Health and Ambulance Services Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said these changes were about helping the state’s hardworking healthcare staff.

“All our healthcare workers are doing an incredible job under challenging circumstances – and this package is about giving them the support they need, to give Victorians the care they deserve faster,” she said.

Victoria recorded 9630 new Covid cases and 16 deaths on Sunday, while 760 people are in the state’s hospitals with the virus and 37 patients are in ICU.