The NSW government’s decision to drop most Covid-19 restrictions for a period in mid-December caused testing systems to collapse and contributed to the deaths of hundreds of older people, an inquiry has heard.
Aged Care and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Sadler told NSW politicians probing the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic that he warned the government in the first two weeks of December the sector wasn’t ready to open up.
“Within days, the number of outbreaks in residential aged care skyrocketed, and there are now hundreds of deaths in NSW in aged care since that decision,” Mr Sadler said.
But Health Minister Brad Hazzard said that while he was in “constant communication” with the aged care sector, he didn’t recall any such warning.
“I don’t recollect there was a specific focus on the aged care sector,” Mr Hazzard told the inquiry.
He also pushed back against an assertion, made by an earlier witness, that the NSW testing system collapsed under the strain of Omicron in December.
“I don't accept your hypothesis that the testing system collapsed, the system was under enormous pressure,” Mr Hazzard said.
The Omicron strain reached NSW in late November and caused case numbers to skyrocket by the end of last year.
The December 15 rule changes meant masks were no longer mandatory in most indoor places. Crowd limits were also scrapped, among other changes.
Some of the rules were brought back in days before Christmas.
Nearly 1000 Covid-positive people have died in the state since December 15.
Chief health officer Kerry Chant told the hearing there had been at least 419 deaths in aged care in NSW since December 1, including both Delta and Omicron cases.
Nationally, more than 500 people have died in aged care so far in 2022.
The inquiry heard some people in aged care missed out on showers, and even meals, as staff levels crashed in the wake of the Omicron wave.
There was also testimony about the extreme pressure health staff are under as a result of the continuing spread of the virus.
Some NSW nurses on the coronavirus frontline are forced to wear incontinence underwear at work because they don’t have time to go to the bathroom, the inquiry heard.
Others were so exhausted and traumatised they were on the brink of quitting, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association assistant general secretary Shaye Candish said.
“It’s starting to really traumatise them, and that is just what is not fundamentally understood by the government when they say that we are coping with it,” she said.
The union’s members voted overwhelmingly this week to walk off the job to protest what they say are inadequate staffing levels.
The strike, which coincides with the return of parliament next week, is the largest industrial action by NSW nurses since 2013.
Mr Hazzard, in response to a question about the nurses’ concerns, said it was fair to say some health workers were so exhausted they might leave the industry.
But he also said some health workers had told him they weren’t in the job for the money.
“They’ve worked really hard and continue to work really hard – but they also do it because of much more altruistic rexjmtzywasons, rather than for some sort of financial benefit,” he said.
Ms Candish told the inquiry about some of the extreme working conditions health workers had to endure, including sweating in full protective equipment during 16-hour shifts.
“If you’ve ever worked outside, doing some gardening for a couple of hours and feel that intense amount of heat out in the sun – I would say it’s like that, day after day,” she said.
“Going to work completely drenched in sweat, having to change multiple sets of clothes per day because of the amount of sweat that they’re producing.
“It’s really challenging to stay hydrated even though you’re sweating so much because of the donning and doffing that’s required.
“We’re hearing stories of members having to wear incontinence underwear because they’re unable to get to the bathroom.
“In a country like Australia, it kind of beggars belief that this is what’s required.”
