'Done for': Melbourne GP warns COVID-19 testing shift left too late
A Melbourne GP on the COVID-19 frontline has said Australian authorities missed the mark on testing priorities, as the health system continues to struggle with demand.
"The PCR testing in the drive-through clinics, that's done for," Dr Vyom Sharma told Today.
"When one in five people are testing positive, you know we have to resort to other strategies like rapid antigen tests and, unfortunately, we've moved way too late on that."
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Melbourne GP Dr Vyop Sharma is predicting a busy month for health workers. Today
Dr Sharma predicted the next six weeks would be "extremely busy".
"While it's true that with Omicron the hospitalisation rate is a bit lower than Delta, about three per cent of people end up in hospital, it turns out a small percentage of a big number still means a huge number of people are going into hospital," he told Today.
He said a breakdown of data was needed as to who was being hospitalised for COVID-19, and which patients had the virus but needed care for other reasons, along with vaccination rates among the hospitalised, and rates of Delta hospitalisations compared to Omicron.
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"In the meantime, there is still an incredible amount of strain on the health system in all states and it's not just NSW," Dr Sharma said.
"A record number of ambulances being called out, staff being pulled from annual leave.
"In NSW, we heard the announcement being snuck in just before New Years of staff who are meant to be isolating being permitted to come to work.
"That should tell you everything on how much strain is on the system."
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He said health workers were hoping the prediction of a short, sharp peak in cases was accurate.
There is data from overseas showing that, even in places where the case numbers are going up, the rate at which they are going up is also decreasing," he said.
"We hope that it is going to be a shorter wave. But in the meantime, we're seeing this play out in ways we haven't seen before."
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