At one point in April the Southern District Health Board’s aged residential care Covid support team was managing 20 facilities with outbreaks of the disease, a report to be considered by the SDHB tomorrow said.
"Resident outbreaks have occurred in 38 facilities (58%), with eight facilities having multiple outbreaks, i.e. the facility is clear of Covid before another resident tests positive," SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said.
"The impact on facilities with outbreaks is significant and is negatively impacting residents, staff and families."
The health board and facility owners, well aware that the elderly are the most vulnerable to Covid-19, had been planning for months how to keep the disease at bay.
They were relatively successful during the first outbreak in the South, and again in the early days of this latest outbreak, but the virulence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 had proven too difficult to hold back despite the support team taking on extra staff and working extra shifts, Mr Fleming said.
"The team is essentially made up of staff who have, for the most part, taken on this role on top of their already busy responsibilities, working extra hours seven days per week.
"In critical situations the DHB has supported 10 facilities across the district with DHB staff.
"Logistically this has been challenging, but most importantly has only been possible with the goodwill of the staff who volunteered and the teams where they have come from."
Staff case numbers peaked at just below 200 people in late April, resident case numbers reaching a peak of 180 at about the same time.
Although there had not yet been a resident outbreak in 42% of southern residential aged care facilities, Mr Fleming expected many would succumb over the next few months.
Complicating this was the threat of influenza over winter.
While the number of cases had eased, Mr Fleming stressed the aged care sector was still under enormous pressure to look after residents properly due to staff shortages and illness.
"One concerning observation is the large number of aged residential care staff who are burnt out and some are leaving their roles, especially where there have been long outbreaks and multiple outbreaks.
"Workforce and vacancies in the sector has been an issue for a while, however facilities are reporting no applicants for most roles."
One facility which provided both hospital level and rest-home level care had voluntarily transferred their hospital level residents to other facilities, and would be providing only rest-home level care until their registered nurse numbers improved, he said.
The DHB and facilities were discussing how to keep other facilities open at normal capacity.
"The aged residential care workforce is in crisis, and options such as pay parity for registered nurses and pathways for internationally qualified nurses and their families to enter New Zealand must be addressed urgently."
Meanwhile, SDHB chief operations officer Hamish Brown said pressure had eased in Dunedin Hospital’s dedicated ward for patients with Covid-19, which was at capacity on Friday.
The number of hospitalisations in the South dropped to 22 on Sunday and was about the same or less yesterday, Mr Brown said.
"There was a good plan put in place on Friday and for the weekend and pressure has eased. There are beds available in the Covid ward."
Visitors were stopped from coming to Dunedin Hospital last week, except on compassionate grounds, due to Covid-19 outbreaks in multiple wards.
Mr Brown said the hospital might reopen for visitors this week, all going well.
The Ministry of Health did not issue any information about Covid-19 case numbers or deaths yesterday.
