Millicent Spencer
Victorian hospitals will have the power to cancel staff members’ summer leave as COVID cases and hospitalisations continue to rise.
The chief health officer has escalated the system response framework to stage three in the four stage grading system, given the increasing demand on the public health system.
Stage three includes a series of various measures ranging from increasing telehealth consultations, requesting staff members cancel their leave, and increasing the meetings between hospitals and ambulance services.
The chief health officer’s statement said the escalation to stage three was a reflection of high numbers of people with COVID in hospital and ongoing furlough challenges at all sites leading into the holiday period.
In a statement issued by the chief health officer, the Health Response Framework was described as a system, “developed to provide the Victorian acute health system a strategy to maintain high-quality COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 care, including elective activity.”
A Northern Health spokesperson said despite the escalation the hospital does not intend to cancel any leave arrangements.
“Northern Health recognises the importance of staff wellbeing at this time and there aren’t any plans to cancel any planned staff leave over the 2022 Christmas and New Year period,” the spokesperson said.
“Throughout the pandemic, Northern Health has developed numerous actions and plans to deal with an increase in COVID inpatients, and we will utilise these to ensure our staff can take well-earned breaks.”
The escalation comes as Victorians experience a steady rise of COVID cases and increasing hospitalisations.
“The increase in cases is being driven by a mixture of new Omicron subvariants, which are more immune evasive and are responding to waning immunity from past infection and past vaccination,” the chief health officer’s statement read.
A spokesperson from the Department of Health confirmed there is “no plan to move to stage four at this time” and therefore all elective surgery will continue to take place.
