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A Melbourne doctor convinced they contracted COVID-19 while working a “93-hour week” in a busy surgical ward has waited nearly two weeks for comprehensive contact tracing.
Key points:
- An expert and a doctor have questioned the Victorian Government’s statement on the number of healthcare workers who contracted COVID-19 at work
- More than 2,000 healthcare workers are now infected with COVID-19 in the state
- One doctor who has tested positive says the complete contact tracing on their case has not yet been done
- Are you a healthcare worker? We’d like to hear from you
“A surgical nurse tested positive in my ward and infected at least two patients and as many as 10 medical staff,” the doctor said.
One of the patients who contracted the virus from medical staff was a teenager with special needs.
The doctor contacted the ABC after other healthcare workers who tested positive spoke out about not having access to adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
So far in Victoria, 2,414 healthcare workers have tested positive to COVID-19, but it is unclear how many of those contracted the disease at work.
There is no firm or detailed data but last week, Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told a Public Accounts and Estimates committee only 10 to 15 per cent of COVID-19 infections contracted by healthcare workers were acquired in the workplace.
Healthcare workers are considered to work in high-risk environments because they are more likely to have exposure to the disease, so some experts questioned the Government when it said only a small proportion of those with COVID-19 actually got it at work.
Jane Whitelaw, an occupational hygienist from the University of Wollongong, said data showed the rate of infection among healthcare workers was double that of the rest of the population.
“I would suggest at least 50 per cent of Victorian healthcare workers contracted COVID-19 in their workplace,” she said.
“That would be a conservative estimate.”
Earlier this month, Victoria’s chief medical officer said the rate of infections among healthcare workers required a “really significant investigation”.
But so far, authorities have not released a full breakdown of how many doctors, nurses and allied healthcare workers have contracted the virus, how and where they contracted it, and how many were in hospital and intensive care.
Premier Daniel Andrews has promised to release more detailed information by the end of the week.
“It doesn’t make sense that only 10 to 15 per cent of healthcare workers contracted it at work,” the Melbourne doctor said.
Comparing growth among populations
The chart below shows the percentage growth of cases among Victorian healthcare workers compared to non-healthcare workers over the past month.
Over most of that time, cases of COVID-19 have grown faster among healthcare workers than the rest of the state.
Ms Whitelaw said she could not understand why healthcare workers were not being protected like workers in other sectors of the community.
“If you had twice the risk of getting something in your workplace than you did in the general community, everybody would be up in arms,” she said.
“It’s not good enough to accept there’s a risk there to healthcare workers and we’re not doing everything that we can to protect them.
“Healthcare workers are being treated differently to other workers.”
‘The department doesn’t know where I got it’
The healthcare worker, who the ABC has chosen not to name, said the nurse with COVID-19 worked for as many as four days while she was positive.
“We weren’t wearing COVID-level personal protective equipment because we didn’t know that the nurse was positive,” the doctor said.
“Our hospital is pretty good with giving us the right equipment, but you have to know you are with someone who might be infected.”
The surgical registrar found out they had COVID-19 on Tuesday, August 4, and was communicating with the hospital that employs them.
It took until late on Friday, August 7 for the doctor to receive a phone call from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
“The department of health doesn’t know where I got it and they haven’t done the contact tracing about my case,” the doctor said.
Adam Kamradt-Scott, a specialist in health security with the University of Sydney, said that delay was troubling.
“That sort of timeframe is problematic, given the extent to which people could potentially spread it,” he said.
“Those delays make it even worse because you then end up with potentially more people being implicated.”
Mr Kamradt-Scott said a hold-up in contact tracing among infected healthcare workers could put additional burden on other members of the unit.
Each time a healthcare worker tests positive for COVID-19, every colleague they had contact with in the days before has to self-isolate and their shifts need to be covered by additional staff.
The doctor said their hospital was not properly resourced to do contact tracing of infected staff.
“Only one doctor and two nurses in the hospital are doing all the protocols and tracing of staff who get infected.
“It’s the same resourcing that we had before. They are completely stretched.”
But the doctor does not blame the hospital for having an unsafe workplace.
“No-one was prepared for this and there is a sense that we are all in this s*** together,” they said.
“There is overarching acceptance that we don’t have the resources in the hospital to deal with the strain we are under with COVID-19.”
The DHHS has been contacted for comment.
Are you a healthcare worker in an Australian hospital or aged care home who is worried about COVID-19 in your workplace? We would like to hear from you.
Your identity will be treated as strictly confidential by the ABC, unless otherwise agreed with you, and any sensitive information you provide to us will not be published without your express permission.
For details about how the information we collect during crowdsourced investigations is handled, see the ABC Crowdsourcing Collection Statement.
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