A COVID-19 dedicated ward could be set up at Wollongong Hospital within an hour; one of its intensive care units could be reconfigured to treat multiple patients acutely ill from the virus within 24 hours.
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That's the estimate from Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District executive director nursing and midwifery Deborah Cameron, who said the district was monitoring the current outbreak closely.
It was the same last March, when COVID-19 cases started to spiral, and Wollongong Hospital staff set up a dedicated COVID ward over a weekend. A COVID intensive care unit was also established quickly and changes made to the emergency department.
This March staff reverted the COVID-only ward back to a general surgical ward; but they're always at the ready to make the move again.
"All the sites, particularly Wollongong Hospital being our prime COVID reception site, are ready to scale up if required," Mrs Cameron said.
"We have all the equipment, we've maintained all the staff training and upskilling, and could stand up COVID dedicated wards and ICUs again within 24 hours.
"We are of course already equipped to take an acutely unwell patient and provide treatment for them in isolation - we have to always be able to do that for other infectious diseases."
Mrs Cameron said changes to the district's emergency departments made in 2020 meant they were already equipped to deal with potential COVID cases: "The EDs have always maintained separated areas for patients who may present as a COVID risk."
There's currently five active COVID-19 cases in the Wollongong local government area and one in the Nowra area - a man in his 30s who was confirmed late last week. All of these have been in isolation as they were close contacts of previously announced cases linked to the Bondi cluster.
Since the start of the pandemic there's been a total of 160 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the ISLHD - 125 of these were acquired overseas.
Ms Cameron said high testing rates were crucial to stopping the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
She said the district along with private pathology providers had worked to increase hours, and sites, for testing - including establishing additional drive-through testing clinics at Kiama and Huskisson on Tuesday.
This not only helped cater for increased demand, it allowed those outside the red zones of Wollongong and Shellharbour better access to testing.
"Over the last three days the communities in both the Illawarra and Shoalhaven have been amazing and there's been more than 5000 COVID tests carried out across the district from Saturday to Monday," she said.
"There's a level of anxiety in communities at the moment, so we're urging people even with the mildest of symptoms to get tested."
Mrs Cameron said demand was also high for vaccine hubs at Wollongong, Shellharbour and Shoalhaven hospitals.
"As of last week we'd done over 30,000 vaccinations," she said. "Demand for the (Pfizer) vaccine is high - at Wollongong we are booked up for six weeks in advance, although there are some spaces on a Sunday for instance. It's important for people to book in as soon as possible where they are eligible.
"We would also encourage those who have made bookings to show up, or contact us - we've had days where up to 20 people who've booked in haven't shown up. You have to use the Pfizer vaccine within six hours once you've organised the doses - we don't want to be wasting any."
Bookings can be made at covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au/
To find all the local testing clinic locations and up-to-date opening hours visit www.islhd.health.nsw.gov.au
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