Covid patients occupy one in three ICU beds in NSW as nurse shortages soar

The high dependency unit of the hospital, which treats almost two dozen patients not yet sick enough to need intensive care, has about one fifth of its nurses absent because of Covid, according to a senior nurse who requested anonymity because of a ban on speaking to the media.

New South Wales may soon record as many as 100,000 new Covid cases a day as people taking rapid antigen tests report their positive results. Even though the Omicron variant is less virulent than the Delta strain, the explosion in cases means even if a small proportion get very ill that number threatens to overwhelm the hospital system.

Fresh figures from the Critical Intelligence Unit of the NSW health department show that as of 9 January the share of staffed ICU beds occupied by Covid patients across the whole state stood at 33%, up from 19.9% on 2 January.

The average length of stay of admissions for the week ending 10 January was 4.5 days, up from 3.6 days for the previous week, the data shows. For those in ICU, the average stay was 4.7 days compared with six days a week earlier.

As of 9 January, NSW had 4,941 healthcare workers in isolation, up from 2,457 on 3 January, the data shows.

A patient needing resuscitation would typically require a team of eight staff in normal times. Such work was now being done by two to three staff.

Normally the HDU would have a minimum of one nurse per three patients. That ratio had now risen to one to five on occasions, and may reach six or seven.

Staff had been told to minimise their exposure to the virus by wearing masks, maintaining social distance and washing hands, the nurse said.

The dearth of rapid antigen tests had also affected the hospital, the nurse said. Staff were supposed to test every second day, but could not get access to a test even at the hospital.

NSW Health has been contacted for comment.

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