Major obstacle in stopping Covid spread in Sydney epicentre
Health care staff working on the front lines in the "epicentre" of Sydney’s expanding Delta outbreak have spoken out about a major obstacle in the effort to stop the spread of Covid.
Some patients are arriving at hospital emergency rooms in the city’s southwest and are refusing to take a Covid test, a specialist who works with virus patients in western Sydney confirmed to Yahoo News Australia.
The issue has been discussed among staff at hospital meetings and appears to stem from the patient’s concern of what the implications would be on their households, the specialist, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
Not only are people worried about what a two-week quarantine period would do to their families financially but there is also the stigma of testing positive, he added.
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"Most infections disproportionately affect people who are disadvantaged — it requires specific interventions which address the socio-economic issues," he said.
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While NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has highlighted the problem during recent media conferences, Dr Danielle McMullen, the Australian Medical Association’s NSW branch president, told Yahoo News Australia it is a "huge concern".
"Covid-19 is a serious illness but there are supports available both from a health care and economic perspective so we don’t want people to be scared of testing positive or be concerned about their family financially," she said, noting that self-isolation can be hard on families, especially if they need to be separated.
More supported needed, medics say
If more financial or other support like accomodation is needed, Dr McMullen said she urges the government to provide those.
She also called for important information about Covid and such support systems need to be made available in multiple languages.
"Communication, even in English, has been constantly changing during this outbreak," she said.
NSW on 'precipice of a massive deterioration'
The refusal of Covid tests and communication issues due to language barriers are two of four reasons why Sydney’s lockdown is failing, according to a western Sydney doctor.
In an opinion piece published by the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, the anonymous Sydney respiratory physician said they are "gravely concerned about the NSW government’s ineffective response to the Delta outbreak".
"NSW is almost certainly on the precipice of a massive deterioration" the doctor wrote.
Between one-third and a half of all consultations require an interpreter and sometimes the physician and patient must use a common language that is not the first language for either, the doctor added.
"To expect multicultural communities to quickly comprehend ever-changing public health directives is almost impossible."
The doctor said two more problems threatening the success of the lockdown include the challenge large families face of having to isolate under one roof, and the late arrival of very ill Covid-infected patients to hospital.
"Some households are very sick, but their members do not seek help as they are trying to avoid restrictions," they said.
"Tragically, in certain western and southwestern Sydney hospitals, Covid-infected patients are presenting so late in the course of their infection that it is necessary that emergency teams intubate them immediately upon their arrival.
"Such late presentations are not being seen at hospitals from the north, centre and east of Sydney."
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