New virus is taxing hospitals

AN outbreak of a highly infectious respiratory virus that mimics COVID symptoms is causing chaos at the already stretched Gold Coast University and Robina hospitals.

The boss of the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) said the demand since Christmas had been “unprecedented across a wide range of areas”.

Dr David Green said the 330 patients the ED averaged each day last year had jumped to about 360.

On Tuesday, a record 402 people presented to GCUH and this had a huge impact on wait times, with some patients waiting up to four hours for treatment.

“We’re getting into 400 people per day and it’s extremely difficult which can lead to ED overcrowding, ambulance stacking and delays in getting beds upstairs.

“A lot of staff are quite fatigued and a lot of people are getting called back at night, they’re doing a great job. The public need to be aware that waiting times may be longer and to use the ED for emergency only.

“The biggest thing that affects us at the moment is that most GPs, which I can understand, are not seeing patients with respiratory illness or possibility of COVID and that impacts on us.

“That places a fair load on our department and unfortunately that’s made waiting times in the evening, especially for kids, a fair bit longer which we don’t like.”

Dr Green said staff were also dealing with an “unusual” increase in the number of children presenting with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in young children under the age of 12 months.

It was affecting GCUH, the Queensland Children’s Hospital and all the hospitals in the southeast corner, he said.

Symptoms are similar to COVID, and include a runny nose, cough, fever and respiratory distress, so Dr Green said most patients who presented were swabbed for COVID.

Dr Green said the infectious nature of the virus was also affecting workloads at Gold Coast hospitals, with staff who work in the area where RSV is common at risk of getting sick. “We’ve seen a lot of change in our respiratory virus presentations due to COVID. For example, we haven’t seen much flu at all due to the hand washing and isolation during sickness.”