A worrying development given the spike in cases in Melbourne’s aged care homes and hospitals.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are reporting that the State Government canned several initiatives designed to expand its capacity to fight COVID-19 even as the number of cases of community transmission jumped.
According to the report, major orders for ventilators, defibrillators and intensive care monitors were cancelled or renegotiated, and may now need to be reinstated following the recent increase in cases.
This included an order for over 3,000 intensive care monitors in April that was reduced to around 2,000.
Plans to buy hundreds of defibrillators from overseas were also shelved after Victoria drove down its cases in April.
Another plan for a 750-bed intensive care facility at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre was also put on the back burner.
We imagine those decisions are now under close scrutiny.
