Canberra's most vulnerable are facing a double hit during the Omicron surge, with elective surgeries cancelled and the prospect of infection much riskier.
Two-year-old Parker Dowling was diagnosed with epilepsy at five months old and continues to suffer spasms and seizures. Mum Briony Kelly says while he still receives medical attention, some of his treatments are considered elective so is facing delays.
"Parker still requires medical attention and in saying that, if it's an emergency situation, he still gets treated but if treating his condition is not an emergency status it can be delayed because of the current outbreak," Ms Kelly said.
"Often we would have to travel to Sydney to get him his treatment there and sometimes they would prefer we delay it because of the outbreak and you're basically told it's not a good time.
"We're still undergoing testing to find a cause for Parker's condition and so far there hasn't been a cause found so we're in an unknown."
While Ms Kelly waits in limbo for Parker's ongoing treatment, he attends Stella Bella Children's Centre, which specialises in respite care for chronically ill babies and children.
"Stella Bella have been fantastic and have been super careful about the kid's health and putting all the policies and procedures in place to make sure that germs aren't getting into the centre for not only kids in the special care room but also mainstream rooms to make sure all kids are safe," Ms Kelly said.
"Last year and this year with the current variant being so rampant, it's concerning for parents, particularly of medically complex children. We have to send our kids to childcare so that we can work because we are a double-income family, that's just the way things are.
"We are extremely lucky to have Stella Bella so Parker can still go and get all the social activities and learn things at school."
Founder and operator of Stella Bella Suzanne Tunks has been planning for the return to work rush since Omicron became known in the ACT.
"I'm very risk averse, so I do like to plan ahead. I just completely amended our COVID policy and sent it out the day before everyone came back and most parents have now brought their child back for the year," Ms Tunks said.
"I made our own definition of close contacts and secondary contacts and how we're responding to that, so I went above and beyond the government rulings and all the feedback I got is that parents feel really safe because they know we're going the extra mile.
"For example, anyone whose child has spent a couple of hours in a setting where someone else had COVID they aren't able to come to day care."
While Ms Tunks has created a strong system to prevent the spread of COVID, she says it's still a lot of pressure trying to keep Omicron out of the centre.
"I'm probably more nervous than a lot of our parents because I feel responsible for the kids."
