Hospital staff hit by Covid

THE Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) is battling with more than 130 staff off work with Covid or in isolation as a close contact.

While state Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has indicated there may be statewide cuts to elective surgery with a fresh wave of Covid surging upward, there are no plans right now to cut procedures in Cairns.

Acting CEO of Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Services Steve Thacker said there was pressure on staffing levels.

“We have 132 people off on furlough,” he said.

“It is having a significant impact. Our focus is on maintaining our services to keep people flowing through the hospital but we do have pressures on staffing.”

Mr Thacker said as the wave of new cases moved to a peak there were no plans to cut back on elective surgery.

“We haven’t closed any at this stage and we anticipate being able to keep services running and all of our elective surgeries continuing,” Mr Thacker said.

He urged people to get vaccinated, and to isolate and get tested if unwell.

Across the region, more than 95 per cent of people have had their first dose, 93.2 per cent have had a second dose, but only 61.4 per cent have had a booster dose as well. “We’re certainly in the second wave and monitoring that really closely. Sometime in the next few weeks we’ll be seeing the peak and provided we don’t get another strain coming through, numbers will start to drop,” Mr Thacker said.