BOPDHB chief executive Pete Chandler said he expected changes within the district health board's service delivery. Photo / NZME
BOPDHB chief executive Pete Chandler said he expected changes within the district health board's service delivery. Photo / NZME
Hospital services will be disrupted by Covid-19 in the coming weeks and possibly months, the Bay of Plenty District Health Board's chief executive has warned.
Pete Chandler said the Tauranga and Whakatāne hospitals were already full and would not be able to meet everyone's expectations for normal services but thatwas the "reality of what Covid does".
Covid-19 cases have been confirmed on the Bay's borders in the Lakes and Waikato, and the virus was detected in Tauranga wastewater samples from November 11 and Mount Maunganui from November 10 and 11. Results of further testing has not been made public.
Chandler said with the virus making its way to the Bay of Plenty, he expected changes to the district health board's service delivery.
Both Tauranga and Whakatāne hospitals were "100 per cent full with very sick people" right now, he added.
"We are poised to need to make some changes to service delivery.
"But we will always deal with people who are in dire need with cancer, with acute medical and surgical needs. We never compromise urgent work, that will always be supported."
Last month the Bay of Plenty Times reported work had started to increase Tauranga Hospital's capacity to take Covid-19 patients, converting ward 4 into a Covid ward.
Chandler also said it had started to "pull back on remaining non-essential general business" ensuring the "widest pool of people" was available to help with outbreaks.
This included looking at executive and senior management meetings, different committees and redirecting staffing.
"We are taking a careful look at what elements of that kind of general infrastructure need to continue over the next few weeks, and which ones we can pause."
"We are talking about the business dealings of the DHB. All of the things we have to do to keep our hospitals running."
For example, a staff member had been put in charge of organising accommodation for incoming staff, he said. But she had put half of her regular work on pause to pick up this responsibility.
"We are going to have an increased movement of staff around the country as borders open up, which should allow us to recruit more. But of course, that is at a time when accommodation in the Bay is going to be jam-packed with holiday visitors."
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive Pete Chandler. Photo / George Novak
He said the DHB had been trying to "recruit significantly across all professional groups" since the beginning of the year, which had proved "very difficult" due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
The board has previously put out a call for nurses, GPs, medical staff and Allied health professionals in the Bay with intensive care experience not currently working at the hospitals to register their details, in case they were needed in a Covid outbreak.
Covid-19 incident controller Trevor Richardson said 4,323 staff worked across the DHB, compared to 3,718 staff in March 2020.
"We will manage Covid positive patients as required within our hospitals with the appropriate clinical staff."
General manager of Tauranga's private Grace Hospital Janet Keys said it would try hard not to let Covid-19 disrupt any upcoming planned surgeries.
It did not have any extra capacity to pick up DHB work between now and Christmas at this stage, but this would be "reassessed" depending on the Covid-19 situation.
Keys said this time of year was typically "really busy" with surgeries because patients wanted to recover over the Christmas period.
A plan was in place for when Covid-19 entered the community, she said.
And she said the team had been wary of its arrival since the recent wastewater detection.
All staff had been fully vaccinated and had undergone training around Covid-19 protocols and treating patients in full PPE gear. They were preparing the hospital to ensure an isolated space was available to treat patients with the virus.
BOPDHB Covid programme operations manager Brent Gilbert-De Rios said it was "closely monitoring" first and second dose vaccine uptake in the region and doing "everything" possible to meet the 90 per cent as soon as possible.
De Rios said areas with lower vaccination rates were mostly rural.
And he said "convenience and accessibility" were key to people having easy opportunities to get vaccinated.
Residents would continue to see pop-up clinics at workplaces, supermarkets, community centres and sports grounds.
"Whatever it takes. We're doing our best to ensure everyone has access to reliable information and creating as many vaccination opportunities as possible to ensure everyone in the Bay can get vaccinated.
"Anywhere our community is, we and our providers want to be."
The Baypark Covid-19 vaccination centre closed on Friday, with Gilbert-De Rios saying that instead of operating at this "large site" the team would be based at pop-up community clinics throughout the district.
The vaccination mandate deadline for healthcare workers passed yesterday. The DHB has reported four per cent of its staff were unvaccinated.
Vaccination clinics
Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa walk-in clinics:
· Bayfair Covid-19 vaccination centre, Bayfair Shopping Centre · Maunganui Road Pharmacy, 436 Maunganui Road · Kaitiaki Services, 266 Maunganui Road · My Pharmacy Pāpāmoa Plaza, 7 Gravatt Road
