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\u201cWe\u2019ve done everything we can to ensure that our community will be kept as safe as we can possibly keep them, that our hospital is absolutely prepared to manage COVID positive patients as we did last year. This is not new to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of mid-last week Bendigo Health was treating four COVID-19 positive patients from a mix of locations in a dedicated ward.<\/p>\n
The hospital is prepared to reduce less urgent services to make more staff available for COVID-19 patients if demand was to rise.<\/p>\n
That could include deferring non-urgent surgeries, which make up about 25 per cent of the hospital\u2019s total procedures.<\/p>\n
Changes have also been made to the hospital\u2019s emergency department where two streams now separate patients with respiratory issues from all other attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere COVID positive patients are streamed into the hospital, we have dedicated separate paths of transfer, so they don\u2019t move in the same place as other patients or staff,\u201d Mr Faulkner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing all of those things really just maximises safety and reduces the risk of transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BENDIGO Health will begin treating COVID-19 patients from across regional and rural Victoria after being designated as a COVID-19 streaming hospital last week. The new arrangement was made ahead of the State Government\u2019s plan to ease restrictions in line with vaccination rates in the coming months. \u201cWith that will come an increase in COVID case […]<\/p>\n