Advertisement

Staff shortages hit paramedics as SA braces for COVID peak

The state’s ambulance service has cancelled “all internal training” and is contracting patient transfer work from the private sector to ease pressure on staff ahead of a forecasted peak in COVID-19 cases this week.

Jul 18, 2022, updated Jul 18, 2022
Photo: Ben Macmahon/AAP

Photo: Ben Macmahon/AAP

It comes after the Ambulance Employees Association reported there were 18 ambulances unstaffed on Saturday night, prompting the ambulance service to declare a level one incident – along with an Opstat White – amid “severely reduced community coverage”.

Last night SA Ambulance declared a level one incident alongside an OPSTAT White deceleration due to high COVID staff shortages, ramping and high workload. 18 ambulances were left completely unstaffed overnight leading to severely reduced community coverage. pic.twitter.com/bYVATdcmJf

— Ambulance Employees Association (SA) (@aeasa1981) July 17, 2022

Health Minister Chris Picton said the SA Ambulance Service advised him on Sunday there were 85 paramedics furloughed due to COVID-19.

He said the number of furloughed staff across the health system was more than 600, with that figure “going up incrementally every day”.

“There’s no doubt that [Saturday] night was a very difficult situation for our ambulance service because we have so many staff who are furloughed because of COVID at the moment,” he told reporters on Sunday.

“We have seen the number of staff right across our health services going up as the whole of the community is facing that at the moment.”

Picton said the furloughs have created a “big difficulty in terms of being able to put ambulances on the road at the moment”.

“[The ambulance service] is taking urgent action to make sure that they can address the situation in the short term,” he said.

“They are cancelling all internal training at the moment, they’re bringing in work from the private sector to help in terms of low acuity patient transfers, and also [on Monday] we have starting 32 new ambulance graduates who’ll be out on the road helping in terms of our crewing.”

It comes as South Australia is forecast to hit its COVID-19 peak this week as the more contagious BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants take hold in the community.

We really need to prepare that this is going to be a significant wave.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier detailed modelling last week forecasting the state was likely to reach its peak daily caseload on Tuesday, July 19, although authorities are unsure how high the peak will be.

The state’s COVID-19 decision-making body, the Emergency Management Council, will meet on Tuesday to discuss the latest modelling.

SA Health reported one death and 3358 cases on Sunday with 288 people in hospital. Previous modelling has forecasted a July caseload peak of around 5000.

Acting Premier Susan Close said national cabinet on Saturday received “sobering information” about the upcoming wave from chief medical officer Paul Kelly.

“Australia’s chief medical officer told us that we should expect this wave to be the equivalent of January, which as we all recall was pretty bleak here in Adelaide,” Close told ABC Radio this morning.

“So we really need to prepare that this is going to be a significant wave.”

But she said it was not time to implement wide-ranging mask mandates, citing advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee delivered at national cabinet.

“Their view – given the levels of vaccinations given the familiarity that people now have with the importance of mask-wearing – was that strongly urging people to consider wearing a mask indoors with other people was sufficient,” she said.

“I think that the time of mandates is probably passing unless something changes pretty significantly.”

Meanwhile, the Opposition is today calling on the state government to find a permanent replacement for sacked SA Health CEO Chris McGowan.

McGowan lost his job amid Labor’s post-election shakeup of the public service which saw four department chiefs axed.

Lynne Cowan, McGowan’s former deputy, has led SA Health in an acting capacity since April.

“Labor made many promises on health during the election campaign, and it seems they are failing to deliver, and failing to act with any urgency,” shadow health spokesperson Ashton Hurn said.

“Our health system is under extraordinary pressure and it’s surprising that the Labor Leader has failed to appoint a new chief executive of SA Health at a time when the Department needs leadership.”

Local News Matters
Advertisement
Copyright © 2024 InDaily.
All rights reserved.