Strict Self-Isolation Needed to Stop Hospital Sinking

By Sue Abbott

WE are ill prepared for covid-19 yet we should not be in this position when you consider that our state and federal governments have known this was coming since January this year. The message from China could not have been clearer.

Early on in the covid-19 crisis, the federal government called the pandemic for what it is, but then they all went off for a nap.

Essentially, our political leaders wasted February despite the fact that this is a disease which they knew came with a high mortality rate.

March saw a complete breakdown in border and bio-security with the Ruby Princess docking in Sydney, then permitting all her passengers to disembark and melt into communities across Australia, underpinned by the arrival of many air travellers doing much the same with vague promises that they would ‘self-isolate’ … oh yes of course.

And so today we suffer unintended consequences (a) because of the rising rate of covid-19 cases and (b) because our leaders did not order in ample amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) for nurses, doctors, ambulance personnel and police, nor vast amounts of testing kits so crucial in flattening the dreaded curve.

Our governments should have been ready but they were not and many deaths that were arguably preventable may inevitably eventuate.

So now we have been informed that it is up to us to do our bit to socially distance ourselves in order to minimise transmission, and that we need to be deadly serious about this strategy given that it is really the only one left in the box now.

We need to quarantine and self-isolate ourselves as though our lives depend upon it because they do … and if we do need to go to the shops or the doctors or the hospital, we need to maintain a 1.5 metre distance from people we meet at those places, we must not sneeze or cough on them, and we must keep on washing our hands and wiping down supermarket trolley handles.

Sue Abbott calls on local residents to self-isolate more strictly.

Basically, we need to drastically curtail outings and stay home.

It is worth bearing in mind that Scone hospital does not have its own doctors per se but is staffed by doctors from Scone Medical Practice.

There are no intensive care beds at the hospital and there are no facilities to care for ventilated patients for more than a few hours.

If the system is overwhelmed people will die in our hospital because we do not have the resources to look after them.

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, patients who required further treatment other than Scone Hospital could provide, would be transferred down the valley but if hospitals in Maitland and Newcastle are at capacity because of the covid-19 crisis, access to their units will be blocked because they will be full.

Wondering how our public health system, which is already stretched to capacity, will respond to the covid-19 pandemic has left me 100 percent certain that we need to quarantine, or self-isolate ourselves as dedicatedly as possible … because if we do not do our bit we are on track for our hospitals to be completely sunk.

Please stay home.

Related stories:

• Reach Out to Your Neighbour – March 26, 2020.
• Coronavirus: Local Help Is At Hand – March 18, 2020.
• Breaking the Chain of Infection – March 31, 2020.