Thread by @greencate

Just yesterday Brad Hazzard told me that no one had raised concerns with him that ICU capacity in NSW was at risk. How strange that I was getting pleas for help from doctors and nurses working on the frontline in our ICUs, but the Health Minister wasn’t? Thread. #nswpol #covidnsw

ICUs in our hospitals at the epicentre of this outbreak like Westmead, Liverpool and Nepean are at breaking point. I’ve been told that one of the main issues is that there aren’t enough nurses to care for the number of Covid patients in ICU who need 1:1 care most of the time,

and that ambulances transporting Covid patients are having to be turned away.

Hospitals are at risk of being completely overwhelmed any day now, but unfortunately things look like they’re going to get worse before they get better. I’ve just written to the Health Minister with 8 things he must do now so that our hospitals and ICUs,

and the incredibly hardworking people who staff them 24/7, get the resources they need to keep themselves, and all of us, safe during this pandemic. The link is at the end so you can add your name.

Here’s what I’ve told him he needs to do:

1. Redeploy ICU nurses from areas with no, or low Covid cases, to hospitals in western and south-western Sydney struggling to cope

2. Provide incentives for retired nurses and other health professionals to return to work, and give early sign-off to student nurses to enter the workforce, as Victoria did in last year

3. Provide ‘risk payments’ for nurses working on Covid-19 wards

4. Pandemic leave for healthcare workers including casual and agency workers who are forced to isolate due to COVID-19

5. Approach state and territory governments not dealing with an outbreak to put a call out for additional healthcare workers

6. Provide accommodation to healthcare workers who want, or need, to isolate from their families

7. Draw upon any additionally ICU-trained nurses from 2020’s surge planning

8.Provide standardised airborne grade PPE to protect health workers from infection and reduce the potential of an outbreak to impact on staffing levels

Take action at catefaehrmann.org/icu_crisis #nswpol #covidnsw