COVID, flu puts hospital under pressure

AS pressure on the health system increases due to respiratory illnesses this winter, Bendigo Health has experienced the busiest day at the town’s main hospital emergency department in many years last week.

“Yesterday we had an increased number of people presenting to our emergency department and quite a number of additional emergency presentations via ambulance,” Bendigo Health CEO Peter Faulkner said last Friday.

“I can only assure our community that our staff are doing their absolute best, they have been doing a terrific job, but just like all of us they are equally exposed to respiratory illnesses, and staffing remains a very challenging factor for us.”

Mr Faulkner said hospital staff are in “constant fear” of COVID-19 cases suddenly increasing.

New reports have been hovering around 200 a day for several weeks, and there were over 1300 cases in Greater Bendigo earlier this week, one of the highest active cases rate per 100,000 people in Victoria.

“We expect this will be the pattern we’ll see for some weeks to come,” Mr Faulkner said.

“It’s clear the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants of COVID-19 are in fact dominant and that is confirmed for our community and generally across both metro and regional Victoria.

“We also know these variants are more successful at evading immunity both from vaccinations and immunity from previous infections. We do expect to see cases rise.”

Mr Faulkner said people returning to Victoria from holidays and the start of term three may also contribute to a rise in cases.

The hospital closed its drive through COVID-19 testing site over two weeks ago, however Mr Faulkner said walk-ins are still available at the Mollison Street hub and encouraged the use of rapid antigen testing.

Mr Faulkner also encouraged those over 40 to have their recommended fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while those between 30 and 40 should consider whether it is right for them.

As of Monday there were 35 COVID patients at Bendigo Hospital, 11 in the respiratory ward and one in the ICU.