A Ballarat man has accused Grampians Health of putting him at increased risk of catching COVID-19 while he received care for an unrelated, chronic condition.
Peter, who requested his surname not be used, went to Ballarat Base Hospital on March 30 to get treatment for a severe chest infection.
The 63-year-old suffers from a rare lung condition called chronic organising pneumonia (COP), which has left him immunocompromised and unable to work.
Despite telling hospital staff about his ailment and that he had returned four negative rapid antigen tests before taking himself to hospital, Peter was taken to a COVID-19 ward.
"I had to sit there with a [four-year-old] fellow with no mask on, coughing and spluttering," he said.
Hours later, Peter said the child's father told him his son had returned a positive result.
Peter said he then had to undergo a PCR test and was made to stay in the COVID-19 ward for days while he awaited his test result.
"I'm locked in a room — I can't leave it … I can't see my friends, I can't have visitors," Peter told ABC News by telephone while he was an in-patient.
"It's not a way to treat people."
'Not rocket science'
Peter avoided catching COVID in the ward and was allowed to return home the following week.
While he is "so frustrated" at Grampians Health, which operates Ballarat Base Hospital, Peter says he is sympathetic toward hospital staff.
"I can't blame the staff, they're not the ones making these decisions," he said.
"It's higher up the chain. Surely, someone should start thinking laterally.
"It's not rocket science."
No ward transmission, service says
In a statement, Grampians Health told ABC News that while it did not comment on specific patient cases, all areas of the organisation continued to operate under strict COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures.
"Patients who present for admission with a respiratory illness are treated as suspected COVID [cases] and are also PCR tested as an additional precaution," the statement said.
"These patients are admitted to the COVID ward, where they remain until their result is known, and if negative are moved to a suitable bed when it becomes available."
Grampians Health executive director of acute operations Ben Kelly said the service's infectious disease team had "done a great deal of work to map airflow management on our COVID ward".
"To date, there has been no transmission of COVID between patients who have been managed on the COVID ward," he said.
