A leading infectious diseases expert is calling for a shift in the country's response to COVID-19 after a major Victorian hospital revealed it is struggling to cope with surging demand.
Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital yesterday warned there would be long wait times and delayed non-urgent surgeries due to what it called unprecedented demand.
Royal Children's Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald said there were a total of 335 presentations at the hospital last night, a number she called "very, very high".
"Unfortunately the waiting room is not supposed to hold quite as many patients as it had last night," Ms McDonald said.
"The longest waiting time we had was about 12 hours."
She said that while wait times had ballooned due to the overwhelming demand, no patients would be turned away from the hospital.
"We would never turn anybody away, I just need to make that really clear. If people come to our emergency department, we will treat them," Ms McDonald said.
"It does unfortunately mean that when we have the challenges like last night, some people who are less clinically urgent will have to wait a long time."
Ms McDonald said parents should consider alternatives like GPs or the Nurse On Call telehealth service first before bringing their children to the emergency room.
"We encourage parents to think about where's the most appropriate place to take my child, do I have to take my child to the Royal Children's, could care be given somewhere else just as safely, and just as great care if they're not critically unwell?" she said.
Staff have been asked to work extra shifts as the hospital tries to clear the backlog of patients, but Ms McDonald said it could take days before patient waiting times are reduced.
"Hopefully it won't be that long, hopefully we can improve as the week goes on and we create some capacity and we try to keep the flow moving. Hopefully it won't be those long waits but there could be some delays," she said.
Victoria's Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said it was a short-term issue because the hospital was under pressure because of staff shortages due to COVID-19.
"My understanding is that we are approaching the peak of this current wave of COVID and that's good news for all of us," she said.
"It also means, of course, we should expect to see less staff not being able to present to work."
The hospital said several factors, not limited to COVID-19, were behind the surge in demand.
Lack of access to healthcare causing rush on emergency rooms
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president Clare Skinner said while COVID was a contributor, the surge on emergency departments was a growing trend reflecting the difficulty in Australians accessing healthcare.
"We're seeing a whole bunch of people presenting with social problems and also psychological distress. We live in challenging times, people are under a lot of pressure in the community," Dr Skinner said.
"We see our emergency departments under pressure because we're the only place in the healthcare system and the social care system that is open 24 hours a day and is free at point-of-care."
Dr Skinner said the primary staff shortages were in nursing, with funding needed to avoid nurses experiencing burnout in the role.
"We talk about recruitment, but I think we need a really big focus on retention and the health and wellbeing of our current staff that are working in very difficult conditions," she said.
Dr Skinner was on an emergency room shift last night in Sydney and said the problem was not just endemic to Victoria, but existed across the whole country.
"It's a longstanding problem and it's a very complex problem and we need a serious commitment to transformative healthcare reform — particularly around the funding and governance of the system — to make sure we have a system that is fair and accessible for the healthcare needs of Australians today."
Expert slams 'pro-infection' COVID-19 policy
The situation at the RCH comes after Ambulance Victoria called a code red on Saturday due to a surge in patients calling for emergency treatment.
Infectious diseases expert Brendan Crabb from the Burnet Institute said authorities were effectively letting COVID-19 run free in the community, and hospitals and emergency services were paying the price.
"I'm becoming angry … this is the sort of thing that happens with a COVID policy like we have … which is effectively pro-infection," he said.
"It effectively says it doesn't matter how much COVID is in the community so long as we in inverted commas 'protect the vulnerable'."
Professor Crabb said even though it was not just people with active infections presenting to hospital, previous COVID infections are likely to be factor in the hospital surge.
"Meaning that in quite a few of them, their immune systems might not be functioning as they once were or as they could."
