Michelle Slater
Latrobe Regional Hospital is set to become a COVID streaming service to treat positive cases in Gippsland, rather than sending patients to Melbourne.
LRH chief executive officer Don McRae said the hospital was awaiting a state government cabinet decision over the matter.
“We expect in the future, we will take in positive cases here in the Latrobe Valley so patients won’t have to travel to Melbourne,” Mr McRae told The Express.
“We are currently working under a system where we are streaming positive cases to Melbourne, and our emergency department is set up to segregate any suspected cases into separate sections.”
Mr McRae said the hospital was “well-equipped” for any outbreaks in the Valley, and was poised to ramp up resources and staffing as needed.
He said there were staged plans in place to escalate resources, including drawing staff from other health services and upping capacity to 80 COVID beds, including spaces for 30 ICU patients.
“Our plans are advanced and we are ready for a surge if it comes, we hope it doesn’t come,” he said.
It comes as the hospital recorded two COVID incidents in the past week, one where a
positive presentation on September 29 sparked the Thomson maternity ward to be put into lockdown and another case on September 27.
Mr McRae said they were still monitoring and testing maternity ward staff, but stated the hospital managed both cases early and there were no transmissions between staff or patients.
“We can get on top of these sites internally, we know who has been where and when, and we can contact everyone straight up, so there’s no risk to the public at large,” he said.
“We have plans in place that we will have to furlough staff, it was always a part of the planning, because it is expected people will turn up with COVID, and our staff will be exposed to them.”
Mr McRae also confirmed that one person who had been hospitalised in the current Latrobe City outbreak had been discharged and was being monitored in home isolation.
But he urged locals to keep following public health advice to get vaccinated, wear masks and wash their hands.
“The community can be assured we are keeping them safe. If we get busy, we have fantastic facilities to keep air flow separate from the general population,” Mr McRae said.
“We want people to be satisfied that based on Burnett Institute modelling, we have sufficient resources to manage this region.”
