In the peak of omicron, the department was running out of isolation rooms daily, COVID positive patients were waiting in cars for hours but the worst of it was when we had sick immunosupressed oncology kids waiting in cars for an isolation room to be available to keep them safe. In normal conditions those patients should be seen by a doctor within 10 minutes and antibiotics on board within 1 hour.
We had patients with cystic fibrosis in open bays, opposite other patients with suspected COVID. It was awful, heart breaking to not be able to protect those especially vulnerable patients because we simply didn’t have room or resources. In NSW paediatric specialty hospitals we have NO MANDATED RATIOS (something the executive have reminded us of again and again), the children of NSW deserve better.