New kids’ hospital may go for Covid

Wellington region health authorities are ‘‘looking at every possibility’’ as they prepare for the inevitable arrival of Covid-19 in the capital area, including the option of using the new children’s hospital as a ward.

With the Delta strain of Covid-19 defying efforts to contain it in Auckland, and the Government unveiling a new traffic light system to allow the country to open up, health officials are making contingency plans.

That includes using the longawaited children’s hospital, Te Wao Nui, which is set to open by the middle of next year, as a ward for those infected with Covid-19.

‘‘We’re looking at every possibility,’’ said John Tait, chief medical officer for Capital & Coast and the Hutt Valley district health boards. ‘‘And you certainly can’t say the new children’s hospital is off the table. But at the moment, with our modelling, we think that we can manage with one of our wards, which will be fine.’’

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced the Government was scrapping the alert level system, and with it lockdowns, and was setting up a new traffic light system for managing the pandemic in the community.

Even once 90 per cent of the eligible population is vaccinated, experience in other countries shows that Covid-19 will still be transmitted in the community, although vaccinated people generally have milder cases of the virus.

Wellington Hospital’s intensive care unit was increasing its baseline number of ICU beds from 22 to 24 in preparation for the arrival of Covid19 in the region.

But this could only happen ‘‘when we can find the ICU staff’’, Tait said.

Wellington ICU was short seven fulltime ICU nurses out of a possible 109 fulltime positions, the health board confirmed.

Across the country, ICU leaders have warned they will have to constantly compromise on patient care if Covid is in the community and staff shortages remain.

The region’s two DHBs would also have to take a different approach to non-urgent health care, such as elective surgeries and outpatient appointments, if Covid was here for the long haul, he said.

During previous spikes in cases or lockdowns, non-urgent care has ground to a halt. That would no longer be the case, he said.

‘‘If we think it’s going to be just rumbling along, then we’ll be in a situation to continue planned care, probably not as much as we could do before.’’

Tait said the level of planned care would depend on how well the virus was managed in the community.

The approach would include ‘‘ring-fencing’’ ICU beds for nonCovid patients, working more closely with the private sector, and using tele-health more for remote outpatient consultations, he said.

‘‘We can’t provide exactly the same service as we provided previously, with Covid in the hospital, but what we can do is try to ensure as much of that business as usual goes on.’’

Meanwhile, business leaders and events organisers say they are poised to keep the city – and the events Wellingtonians love – alive when Delta inevitably arrives.

Wellington’s hallmark events like CubaDupa, the New Zealand Fringe Festival, and even All Blacks test matches would be able to function under the traffic light system, said Warrick Dent, events and experience general manager at WellingtonNZ. ‘‘The traffic light system means, at green or orange you can run events, as long as people are vaccinated.’’

At red, some outdoor community events are allowed with capacity

limits, and public facilities can open with 100-person limits.

‘‘If we get to 90 per cent, that means 90 per cent of the population will be able to attend events and go to venues.’’

Vanessa James, organiser of the New Zealand Fringe Festival, said the pandemic meant she was planning three versions of the festival, set to run from February 20 to March 12. ‘‘There’s the festival at the worst case scenario where it’s completely digital, one that’s halfand-half, and one when we are live again.’’

Artists were ‘‘tenacious and adaptable by nature’’ and it had been a record year for registrations, she said.

CubaDupa is scheduled for March 6, with planning under way to accommodate new restrictions, festival founder Drew James said.

‘‘There’s no doubt we will have to do things differently... We’re determined to find a way on how we can look at running under red, amber, green, and how we can support our artists through that.’’

Any anxiety tied to living with Delta in the community, may depend on how much faith people have in the vaccine, Wellington clinical psychologist Dr Dougal Sutherland said.

‘‘You have seen little hints of this already, when people are vaccinated they have a much greater sense of freedom.’’

People with compromised immune systems or children who could not have the vaccine would probably be ‘‘a little more suspicious’’ of those around them, he said.

Auckland-based clinical psychologist Dr Pikihuia Pomare (Te Rarawa, Ngā i Te Rangi, Ngā puhi) said finding ways to maintain values and tikanga was helpful when functioning with the virus in the community.

‘‘If we are constantly living in that state of hyper-vigilance . . . it’s going to make it really hard for us to think or behave beyond that.’’

Just like we brush our teeth every day, we should start checking our mental health and identifying what’s upholding our hauora or total wellbeing, and what’s not, she said.