Sydney doctor reveals Covid ‘reality’

The doctor told the ABC that staff were working harder and for longer, as the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 passes levels seen at the peak of the Delta variant outbreak.

On Tuesday, as 21,131 new infections were recorded statewide, 1344 people were in hospital with the virus, including 105 patients in intensive care.

There were 25 people on ventilators on Monday, with Tuesday’s figure yet to be released.

Amid the height of the Delta outbreak on September 21, 1266 people were hospitalised with infections, with 244 patients in intensive care and 118 people on ventilators.

There were 1022 infections recorded that day, with the transmissible Omicron variant and fewer restrictions now fuelling higher case numbers, but widespread vaccine coverage is one factor in keeping people out of hospital and intensive care.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant on Monday acknowledged the state’s hospitals were under pressure but said they were well equipped to handle the increase in cases.

Mr Perrottet has repeatedly said he is confident the health system can cope.

But some frontline medical staff, speaking to journalists in recent days, have told a different story.

The doctor who spoke to the ABC said Mr Perrottet’s assertion that hospitals were in a “strong position” was far from reality.

“Every healthcare worker and cleaner and administration worker in hospitals knows how far from the truth this is,” she said.

“All of them are so upset when they hear him making those comments because it shows such a disconnect between his reality and their reality.

“It would be a wonderful thing if he could spend a week in a hospital to see the reality that everyone is living with.”

Meanwhile, The Guardian Australia has reported that Covid-positive nurses are being recalled to work in hospitals across NSW in breach of state health protocols as desperate hospital managers attempt to staff facilities.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said the healthcare system was dealing with a “double whammy” of high case numbers and low staffing levels.

“There’s pressure right across the system. In hospitals, general practice and also aged care,” he told Sunrise on Tuesday.

“That’s from a combination of two things. First up, everybody’s getting sick at the same time.

“At the same time we’ve got this problem of health staff getting sick or getting furloughed because they’re close contacts.

Dr Moy said he was getting calls from colleagues and medical administrators saying they were struggling to staff their units to safe levels to provide care – and not just for Covid patients.

Australia and New Zealand intensive care society vice-president Mark Nicholls said on Monday hospitals were as prepared as they could be and the system could cope despite rising case numbers.

The next day, Dr Nicholls, who works at a major Sydney hospital, told the ABC that it was too early to speculate on the characteristics of Omicron but it seemed like the variant was not attacking the lungs in the same way as Delta.

“In Sydney we’re having increasing cases but the feeling is it’s a mix of Delta and Omicron … The reality is very few people are needing ventilation,” he said.

“When patients presented with Delta they invariably presented with a lung problem. We’re finding an increased number of patients who have come in for an unrelated problem and then been tested and found to have Covid.”

The NSW Premier has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Sydney doctor reveals Covid ‘reality’ as hospitals continue to struggle