Last month, we highlighted a report by The Saturday Paper that showed the Victorian Government failed to disclose to hospital workers that their workplaces were the site of COVID outbreaks, raising the risk of infection among staff – now a new report suggests Daniel Andrews’ Government doesn’t have data on hospital COVID infection rates.
The Australian is reporting that Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) says it is still “looking into” the number of people who acquired COVID-19 while being treated in hospital for other conditions – almost two months after its Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the DHHS “can and should collect” such data and said he would “look into” making it publicly available.
On Monday, the DHHS released data showing the locations of deaths and cases during the state’s pandemic, including information on the gender and ages of the 819 people who have died with the virus.
However, the Department has not provided information on patient death and case data, citing “complexities” with determining whether the patients had acquired the infection while in hospital – despite data being provided daily on aged care residents, whether they contracted the virus at their aged care home or not.
“Understanding where someone caught coronavirus – the circumstances and location of acquisition – is often not known or obtainable, particularly during the peak of the pandemic,” a DHHS spokesperson told the paper.
“In Victoria, all deaths with a positive coronavirus diagnosis are included in the state’s toll, regardless of whether it was the overarching cause of death.”
“This reporting is consistent across all states and territories to ensure the figures are comparable across the country.”
The DHHS said part of these “complexities” came from the lack of an internationally accepted definition of hospital-acquired COVID-19, and the 14-day incubation period. The Department also did not have data on which patients had comorbidities.
Professor Sutton had told a daily press briefing on 4 September that this information should be collected and reported.
You have to ask: how many of those patients understood the risk they were taking when they entered hospital?
Victoria has recorded 655 COVID deaths linked to aged care, all during the second wave of the virus which happened after infection control breaches in the Andrews Government’s hotel quarantine program.
