news
The Royal Melbourne Hospital ICU and COVID ward . Picture : David Caird
Hospital transmissions
Report on COVID-19 transmission in Victorian hospitals .
A
new report has revealed that 277 patients caught COVID-19 in Victorian hospitals last year .
A Victorian department of health analysis looked at data from January 25 to 15 November 2020 . A total of 2,492 people were hospitalised with COVID-19 during this time , and 4,170 hospital staff were infected .
The analysis identified 277 patients as having COVID-19 hospital-acquired infections , or one hospital-acquired infection for every nine patients hospitalised with COVID-19 .
The report states that hospital-acquired infections are the most common complication among hospitalised patients in Australia , with over 165,000 cases annually and , as of 2018 , 9.9 per cent of patients hospitalised in Australia who have an infection acquired that infection in hospital .
The stats show that 30 hospitals in the state had hospital-acquired infections , while eight of those hospitals had 10 or more cases in each .
Hospitals with a higher hospital-acquired Infections caseload had higher numbers of community-acquired COVID-19 hospitalisations and accepted more transfers of residents from RACFs than hospitals with few or no hospital-acquired infections .
However , there was no clear relationship between hospital-acquired infections caseload and the number of RACF residents admitted with potentially unrecognised COVID-19 .
One quarter of all COVID-19 cases in Victoria during this period were linked to RACF outbreaks ( 5,049 of 20,343 ), and close to half of all hospitalised community-acquired cases . ■
Line of fire
Nurses face abuse at vaccine hubs .
People who oppose the Covid-19 jab have abused and spat on nurses in disturbing incidents at Victorian
6 | nursingreview . com . au
Picture : NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui
vaccination hubs , authorities have revealed .
Health Minister Martin Foley revealed shocking details about an incident at Cranbourne vaccine hub where an “ antivaxxer ” made “ completely inappropriate and threatening remarks to our nursing staff ”.
“ That has required us to get Victoria police involved , and make further efforts to make sure that these anti-science and anti-evidence dangerous fanatics are held to account ,” he said .
“ You aren ’ t allowed to come in and abuse our nurses and healthcare professionals .
“ If you want to have your tin pot theories , fine , keep them to yourself , but keep them out of our healthcare settings .”
Foley said there had been other reports across the vaccine hubs of nursing staff dealing with verbal abuse , racism and even being spat on .
“ Violence , physical and verbal threats against our healthcare workers and call centre staff is not okay , and will not be tolerated ,” he said .
“ No matter what the situation is , no matter how frustrated and stressed you are , no matter what wacky theory you might think is real .”
He said security had been ramped up at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre as a result of the shocking incidents . “ It ’ s sad and disappointing that this has to happen … vaccination centres are places where people want to do the right thing and get us a ticket out of this pandemic ,” he said . ■