Staff at a major regional hospital have raised concerns about their ability to provide adequate care for patients due to a sharp rise in COVID-19 admissions and a depleted workforce.
In just one week, the number of people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD) has jumped from 38 to 93 patients.
It comes as the region recorded its largest daily increase in COVID cases with 2,169 new infections and two deaths.
Alex (not her real name) is a public health worker at Wollongong Hospital and spoke to the ABC on the condition of anonymity due to health department rules forbidding her from speaking directly to the media.
"There is definitely not enough staff at the moment, people are doing double shifts, I heard a colleague say today she was working the day shift and the night shift," she said.
"Everybody is tired, everybody is exhausted."
Wollongong Hospital — which cares for most of the patients with COVID — has reached capacity at its two dedicated coronavirus wards and has opened two additional wards to treat COVID-infected patients.
Shellharbour and Shoalhaven Hospitals have also opened dedicated COVID-19 wards.
Alex said, in some cases, nurses were caring for twice their usual patient load and she feared the system would be overwhelmed if hospital admissions continued to rise.
"I'm not sure what is going to happen at the peak when that hits in a couple of weeks," she said.
"There are people spending time in the emergency department on cannulas with fluids because they have no beds."
Anger at government 'disconnect'
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) said its members were angry with the NSW government for not acknowledging the extent of what's happening in the state's hospitals.
"Our members are under extreme pressure," acting secretary-general Shaye Candish said.
"There is a real disconnect between what they are saying and what our members are seeing."
The union said the government needed to act now to ensure hospitals were not overwhelmed at the peak of the Omicron outbreak.
"The government needs to do everything it can to support workers through this incredibly difficult time and the first thing they can do is be honest with the public about what is going on," Ms Candish said.
"That is the only way that this hospital system is going to function and give the staff any real hope of getting through the peak."
Staff redeployed
ISLHD has adapted its COVID response due to rising case numbers, introducing measures to prevent the transmission of the virus within hospitals.
"In response to increasing numbers of COVID-19-positive patients being treated in hospital for other conditions, the Local Health District has now established COVID-management plans for individual wards," ISLHD chief executive Margot Mains said.
"Where a patient being treated in a non-COVID ward develops symptoms and tests positive, measures are immediately put in place to minimise the risk to other patients including implementing additional infection control procedures, and a care plan established in line with COVID-19 patient management protocols."
Meanwhile, Bulli Hospital has been converted into accommodation for COVID cases and staff from the hospital have been redeployed to address shortages at the emergency departments of the region's four major hospitals.
