Hospital gears up for ‘inevitable’ Covid

Marlborough health officials are preparing for not if, but when Covid-19 hits the community.

With New Zealand moving into the ‘‘traffic-light’’ system on December 3, and Auckland’s border set to open on December 15, health officials expect to see a rise of cases in the region.

Wairau Hospital charge nurse manager Simon Langford said, like every summer, the population tended to swell as holidaymakers arrive over Christmas, which always added pressure to the hospital system.

‘‘Clearly Covid has put a different dimension on things for us,’’ Langford said.

‘‘We are expecting cases, it’s reasonably inevitable I would say, that we are going to see Covid cases appear, likely in December but who knows.’’

So while it was ‘‘business as usual’’, they were also planning for Covid-19 cases at Wairau Hospital.

‘‘What we have started to do is create an environment that allows us to manage patients who are either Covid positive, or potentially Covid positive, and separate them from patients that we know aren’t,’’ he said.

‘‘This new challenge that we have, clearly that places a bit of strain on us as an emergency department. Because we are in a small hospital we are likely to borrow staff from other departments if we have to maintain that.

‘‘We are trying to provide the people of Marlborough the service that they need. We’re not discouraging anyone from turning up to ED. But we are asking them to think about whether they do actually need to come to the emergency department.’’

He said it meant staffing over the Christmas period had been revisited.

Langford said Covid patients would be cared for in the hospital’s negative pressure rooms, which controlled airborne contaminants, such as bacteria and viruses, and restricted contaminated air from circulating.

‘‘From their entire journey, we need to make sure that not only are they safe, but they reduce the risk of transmission to other patients and staff.’’

Langford said getting as many people vaccinated as possible was critical to reducing cases in the region.

‘‘And vaccination rates in Marlborough are pretty good really, people of Marlborough are doing pretty well,’’ he said.

‘‘Hopefully those who are undecided will make a sensible decision, so they’ll be protecting themselves and others.’’

Marlborough Primary Health

Organisation chief executive Beth Tester said they were confident with their plans to manage Covid-19 in the community.

For the past six weeks, the organisation has worked with partners on plans to deliver care for Covid cases in the top of the south.

‘‘If it’s a few scattered [Covid] cases, I think we’ll be fine. If we are in the hundreds a day, we will be challenged, as any area would be.’’

General practices would provide care for their enrolled populations should someone get Covid-19. Patients would be cared for virtually for seven days a week.

‘‘General practices would be checking to make sure that you were well and depending on if you were OK they would probably ring you once every two days,’’ Tester said.

‘‘If you were unwell, they would probably ring you a couple of times a day checking in.’’

There would be 24-hour assistance available, should a patient need it through an 0800 number, Tester said.

Nelson Marlborough Health, in partnership with the Primary Health Organisation and Te Piki Oranga was also coordinating how they would provide care to those who were not enrolled with a GP.

A GP or nurse would carry out an initial assessment of the patient, determining the risk profile for Covid-19.

Those in the higher risk category, known as Covid Care 2, would be provided a pulse oximeter. Oximeters clip onto the end of a finger and read the oxygen level in blood by sending light through the skin.

Low risk patients, known as Covid Care 1, would have a follow-up assessment every other day by a practitioner.

Extra mental health support services, and welfare, would also be made available.

Tester said the community based assessment centre, or CBAC, would likely be rolled out as soon as there was a positive case in the region.