By Laura Green
MORE than 600 Frankston Hospital staff members have been sent into isolation.
A total of 618 staff members were sent into isolation after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases at the hospital this month. As of 29 August, 68 cases have been linked to the hospital.
The Acute Medical Surgical Unit, Surgical Short Stay Unit and the 5GN wards are temporarily closed to patient admissions while the cardiology, mental health, ICU, and maternity wards remain open.
“The safety and wellbeing of our staff, our patients and our community is our utmost priority and we are doing all we can to help slow the spread of this virus,” Peninsula Health CEO Felicity Topp said.
Peninsula Health have announced that it is working closely with “skilled prevention experts” to review its COVID-19 hygiene practices and policies following the outbreak. An extension on contact tracing has been implemented, a hospital spokesperson said.
Last week the DHHS reported that 449 active COVID-19 cases are attributed to healthcare workers, about 10 per cent of which are at Frankston Hospital.
Peninsula Health confirmed testing will continue for all asymptomatic staff, which is a common precautionary measure for Australia’s hospital workers.
All patients who were discharged prior to the discovery of the outbreak were interviewed for close contact tracing to reduce the spread of coronavirus in the community.
The hospital has encouraged pregnant parents to continue coming to the hospital for care if they had any concerns about their babies, but announced admissions to the paediatrics centre are closed for now due to high demand.