An emergency “Code Yellow” has been declared in one state’s public hospital system as a new Covid and flu wave smashes health staffing numbers and generates a surge in new patient presentations.
South Australia Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence triggered the emergency on Thursday and at a press conference on Friday morning confirmed at least nine elective surgeries would be postponed and some patients at Adelaide’s overwhelmed metropolitan hospitals would be transferred to regional centres.
“I’ve been able to see this growing number of Covid presentations in particular, but I’m also seeing a growth in pneumonia and heart failure and other conditions which can be triggered by older Australians having a viral illness of a variety of different types,” she said.
“That’s not unusual in winter but what we are experiencing at the minute, is we currently have 200 more patients in our hospital than the same time last year, and that’s significant uplift for our system.”
Respiratory illnesses are the prime driver for the surge in sickness, she said, and around 270 hospital staff were currently off sick with Covid or the flu, and about 140 patients are in hospital with Covid or the flu.
Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier warned the flu posed severe health risks for children and older Australians and implored parents to get their kids vaccinated and older Australians to get vaccinated as well.
“Flu really hits those groups and those are the groups that are presenting to our hospitals,” she said alongside Ms Lawrence on Friday morning.
Ms Lawrence said there were not enough beds to cover patients.
“On any day, we’ve got 100 patients waiting to get into a bed,” she said.
“We will use any space that has been deemed safe to use as a bed space.”
The declaration triggers an emergency response, reallocating resources and adjusting patient care.
As the hospital system works to regain control over the surge, priority two and three surgeries will be pushed back, she said.
Telehealth will also be employed to keep patients in home or care settings if appropriate.
Simone King, 47, was booked in to have her gallbladder removed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
“I’ve been waiting for this surgery for a really long time and not having it is just going to leave me in a whole lot of pain,” she told The Adelaide Advertiser.
“I’m worried I’ll have another gallstone.”
Surges in respiratory illnesses are also hitting other states.
A “triple threat” of flu, Covid and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) detections across NSW has prompted health authorities to call on people over the age 65 to get their free influenza vaccine.
The NSW Health Respiratory Surveillance Report released on Thursday revealed a 27 per cent increase in influenza notifications, and a 23 per cent in Covid-19 notifications week-on-week.
And NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said despite the rapidly increasing flu transmissions, with cases expected to “quickly increase” in the next few weeks, vaccine rates were not where they needed to be.
“Less than half of people aged 65 and over in NSW have received their influenza vaccine this year and we really need to see that number go up, especially as people in this age group are among those most at risk of severe illness,” Dr Chant said.
“We expect the number of influenza cases to quickly increase in the weeks ahead so now is the time to get vaccinated if you haven’t already done so.”
The report also found rates of Covid-19 notifications were “increasing across all ages and most Local Health Districts (LHDs)”.
“In the last week, there continued to be high COVID-19 notification rates in those aged 90 and over,” it said.
“LHDs with smaller populations, such as Far West LHD, experience greater variability in notification rates.”
Incidents of RSV were also high in children between two and four, however reports of positive cases were stabilising in children under two years of age.
Rates of notifications increased by 4 per cent week-on-week.
A separate spotlight was also placed on pertussis (whooping cough) and pneumonia.
The highest rates of whooping cough were identified in children aged five to 14 years of age, with cases appearing to increase.
Notification rates between 2022 to 2024 showed a rapid increase, with one per 100,000 people recording the virus in 2022, to 10.8 cases per 100,000 cases om 2-23.
Year to date in 2024, that figure has already shot to 85.4 notifications per 100,000 people.
Pneumonia, an potentially deadly infection of the lungs, is also of concern to health authorities, leading to “unseasonably high” emergency room presentations in children and young adults, particularly people aged five to 16.