1 in 5 staff at major hospital off during Omicron wave
Doctors were asked to cancel leave and safe care patient ratios were breached because of the shortfall, a Victorian inquiry hears
At the peak of the Omicron wave, one in five health workers at a major Melbourne hospital were furloughed, forcing management to ask other staff to delay or cancel leave — an inquiry has been told.
Alfred Health chief executive Andrew Way told Victoria’s Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee that 1700 Alfred health workers were furloughed as either confirmed COVID-19 cases or close contacts.
This represented almost 20% of the organisation’s total workforce, and staff were asked to return from or delay leave to ease the burden.
“We did maintain all of the major services that the Alfred provides,” Mr Way told the committee on Thursday.
