Coronavirus (COVID-19) Respiratory illness - Effect on Travel

[pauly7]

Firstly there are gaps in Australia's plans.A lot of regional Australia is not prepared.One hospital was told to expect 2 Covid positive patients as they were virtually recovered and their beds were needed.They would still need a negative pressure isolation room.The hospital only had one.
even though warned by this action when a possible Covid patient turned up a few days later the ED staff wanted immediate admission as they didn't have enough staff to deal with it-they had more staff than the ward.Obviously no plan was in place.

One of the biggest and easiest to solve gaps would be for Medicare to rebate for video/phone consults with doctors. The federal government could switch it on literally in days.

It would reduce infected patients turning up to clinics and infecting other patients. It would also reduce them infecting healthcare professionals and clinic staff. It would reduce burden on our clinics. It would mean non-infected people with Other health concerns would maybe not need to come in for a physical exam and take that baseload burden off clinics. It would reduce burden on hospitals.

There is not enough protective equipment for our healthcare professionals. This would help with that problem.

Australia is just so slow and far behind in health sometimes, so many countries rebate these consults and now is a great time to turn them on!

 

[tgh]

Medicare to rebate for video/phone consults with doctors.

Gee that would be a nice little earner… Of course doctors could offer this as a "public service" …..helping hand and all that…..

To be a tad less cynical… Government could quickly set up a large group of skilled intermediaries fielding calls from the the desperate and helpless who are more frightened than ill.
There are probably thousands of skilled medical and peripherally qualified retirees who could do this from home.
There are already extensive call centre apparatus in place , just a bit of effort and it could happen.

 

[pauly7]

Medicare to rebate for video/phone consults with doctors.

Gee that would be a nice little earner… Of course doctors could offer this as a "public service" …..helping hand and all that…..

Many already do, but patients are not covered under Medicare for a rebate so are charged privately which obviously puts a lot of people off - especially the most vulnerable of our community. The UK and many other countries do it. It’s not that hard.

 

[exceladdict]

Medicare to rebate for video/phone consults with doctors.

Gee that would be a nice little earner… Of course doctors could offer this as a "public service" …..helping hand and all that…..

To be a tad less cynical… Government could quickly set up a large group of skilled intermediaries fielding calls from the the desperate and helpless who are more frightened than ill.
There are probably thousands of skilled medical and peripherally qualified retirees who could do this from home.
There are already extensive call centre apparatus in place , just a bit of effort and it could happen.

"Do I need to buy toilet paper?"
I previously found the 1300 nurse hotline very useful.

 

[drron]

Many already do, but patients are not covered under Medicare for a rebate so are charged privately which obviously puts a lot of people off - especially the most vulnerable of our community. The UK and many other countries do it. It’s not that hard.

Many of our QLD regional hospitals teleconference with more remote areas as well as with specialists in the public system.As it is the public system there is no charge.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Welcome to the official Facebook page of NSW Health. The NSW public health system is world-class and is the biggest public health system in Australia.

NSW Health | Sydney NSW

NSW Health, Sydney, Australia. 793,376 likes · 2,030 talking about this · 1,465 were here. NSW Health delivers safe, high-quality and compassionate healthcare to the people of NSW.

www.facebook.com

NSW Health
2 hrs ·
An additional two cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed this morning, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in NSW to 38.
The new cases are:
• A female health care worker at Ryde Hospital in her 30s who is a contact of a previously confirmed case from an aged care facility.
• A female in her 50s who is a contact of a previously confirmed case.
...See more

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Queensland Health
Currently, there is no evidence that wearing a facemask will stop you from catching a virus like novel coronavirus (COVID-19), so if you’re well, no mask is needed!
To stay up to date with the latest information about novel coronavirus, visit www.health.qld.gov.au/coronavirus

 

[pauly7]

Many of our QLD regional hospitals teleconference with more remote areas as well as with specialists in the public system.As it is the public system there is no charge.

Sounds great but the vast majority of Australians are not covered.

Thank you everyone for the kind messages and support - just clarifying - it actually isn’t for me personally (I’m not a healthcare professional), I think it’s just a no-brainer to help us all.

There is actually a change.org that was set up a few hours ago that you can sign which has a couple of thousand signatures already. If you can spare a second that’s a simple way to help. It’s going to Scomo and Greg Hunt.

25,507 people signed and won this petition

No restrictions on Telehealth consultations NOW

www.change.org

 

[Pushka]

It is certainly making an impact.
On a global scale, COVID-19 has reduced greenhouse carbon emissions by 100MtCO2 at 25/2/20. It will be an even greater reduction by now. The China manufacturing shutdown alone has made a significant impact.

COVID-19 heavily reduces China’s carbon footprint

COVID-19 has helped the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases to reduce its carbon footprint by a quarter in just two weeks.

www.smart-energy.com

Dare I say it's almost like Mother Nature fighting back?

Post automatically merged: Mar 8, 2020

One of the biggest and easiest to solve gaps would be for Medicare to rebate for video/phone consults with doctors. The federal government could switch it on literally in days.

It would reduce infected patients turning up to clinics and infecting other patients. It would also reduce them infecting healthcare professionals and clinic staff. It would reduce burden on our clinics. It would mean non-infected people with Other health concerns would maybe not need to come in for a physical exam and take that baseload burden off clinics. It would reduce burden on hospitals.

There is not enough protective equipment for our healthcare professionals. This would help with that problem.

Australia is just so slow and far behind in health sometimes, so many countries rebate these consults and now is a great time to turn them on!

And keep our medical people safer.

 

[drron]

Is China still covering up?
"
But, according to Jiemian News, the recent death of a 'cured' patient has prompted a number of Wuhan's hospitals to suspend plans to discharge patients, pending new blood tests.


The wife of the dead patient told the SCMP that she has been calling local government officials looking for an explanation of her husband’s death. “He only had a low temperature when he was admitted, only just a bit of coughing. In hospital, he took herbal medicine twice a day. Later he even became a volunteer at the hospital, moving supplies,” she said.


Doctors consulted by SCMP said the 'CAT scan showing damage to the patient's lungs 3 days before he was released was concerning, but not proof that his coronavirus infection had returned.'


SCMP says ' A previous report from Shanghai-based news portal The Paper about the patient's death has since been removed from the paper’s website. A similar report by news site Caixin has also been withdrawn.:

Welcome to Precision Vaccinations News

Precision Vaccinations News publishes vaccine news patients can trust to make informed immunization decisions in partnership with doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.

www.coronavirustoday.com

So why have they removed media reports of this death?

 

[drron]

Drive through Covid 19 testing in Sweden.During tomorrow Saturday, Aarhus University Hospital will open a drive-in, where you can get driving and get a test of coronavirus while sitting in the car.
.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Is China still covering up?
"
...
So why have they removed media reports of this death?

Plausible that it's been covered over. They remove ’unhelpful’ reports all the time. Why I wouldn't know, but anything that is implied criticism of the Government and its activities appears to be fair game.

More sceptical about the idea that the improvement (reduction) in case numbers in China is a vast sham. If that was the case you would see more cases in recent travellers out of china (which many countries are still accepting). But they are coming from Italy, Iran and elsewhere now.

This article about Italy implies that the virus was there a long time before it started to spread. Possibly from a very early carrier from Wuhan, but that’s pure speculation on my part.
Al Jazeera - Coronavirus wreaks havoc in Italy, tests limits of health system

At the end of December, an uncommon number of pneumonia cases arrived at the hospital of Codogno in northern Italy, the head of the emergency ward, Stefano Paglia, told the newspaper La Repubblica. Some of these patients could carry the coronavirus, but doctors treated them as typical winter diseases.

 

[burmans]

Plausible that it's been covered over. They remove ’unhelpful’ reports all the time. Why I wouldn't know, but anything that is implied criticism of the Government and its activities appears to be fair game.

More sceptical about the idea that the improvement (reduction) in case numbers in China is a vast sham. If that was the case you would see more cases in recent travellers out of china (which many countries are still accepting). But they are coming from Italy, Iran and elsewhere now.

This article about Italy implies that the virus was there a long time before it started to spread. Possibly from a very early carrier from Wuhan, but that’s pure speculation on my part.
Al Jazeera - Coronavirus wreaks havoc in Italy, tests limits of health system

I'm reminded of the old quote 'never attribute to conspiracy that you could attribute to incompetence'. Its a new disease, not really sure why we expect them to have perfected the testing regimes perfectly in such a short time, but nevertheless the Chinese culture puts a lot of emphasis on 'face'. For me likely any cover up has more to do with embarrassment and loss of face than a conspiracy to donwplay the numbers.

Personally I'm much more concerned about the US. Their health system actively is likely to be contributing to under reporting, there are plenty of people who never ever go to the doctor, combined with their lack of testing capability suggest that this is both being under-reported and will be difficult to control.

 

[get me outta here]

There is now going to be a showdown by the look of it between the Victorian government health Minister and the GPs.
'Shambles': Dr Kerryn Phelps joins GPs lashing government on coronavirus

The GPs want an apology. And are not happy about having to go to Bunnings to buy supplies which may or may not be available and they will run out shortly anyway.

Meanwhile, in the USA anything could be happening because there are insufficient test kits. I’ve been following some of the naive comments on the trip advisor forum. Even though the New York Times is writing very good articles, and the Atlantic as someone here posted a link to, the people don’t seem to realise or accept what trouble they could be in.

 

[get me outta here]

“The symptoms of coronavirus include fever, cough, sore throat, headache, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. If you suspect you or a family member has coronavirus you should call (not visit) your GP or ring the national Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.”

 

[SydneySwan]

Drive through Covid 19 testing in Sweden.During tomorrow Saturday, Aarhus University Hospital will open a drive-in, where you can get driving and get a test of coronavirus while sitting in the car.
View attachment 208548.

I know its being a touch pedantic but Aarhus University Hospital is in Denmark.

 

[PineappleSkip]

I don't think its just the US, its an awful lot of places. I see comments from EU health administrations suggesting or implying that people should stay home if sick and only come to hospital if you are really ill.

Cheers skip

 

[drron]

There were 150000 test kits available from the CDC from Feb 4th.That day they authorised public health laboratoties to develop their own kits as initially a problem with the CDC kits.150000 kits means 75000 people could be tested.testing initially was,as it should be,done on symptomatic patients and contacts.
On 29th Feb the CDC authorised private labs to develop their own kits and it is estimated that there will be over a million test kits available this coming week.

With all due respect the NYT have a different agenda creating anxiety with a political bias.

Here is one counties response in Nevada-another drive through centre.
"Albee said if someone is contacted by the county health district’s outbreak response team or calls to get tested, they must undergo a risk assessment. They are then assigned an identifier number and are given directions to the staging area for testing.

Anyone who is being tested must remain in their vehicles. Albee said nurses are geared up and ready to obtain any samples from patients in their cars. The patient then leaves.
In that way, we hopefully limited the amount of exposure to not only health care workers, but also people so that we don’t have contamination going on in emergency rooms and to health care workers,” Albee said. "

Drive-thru testing in place; 40 Nevadans ID'd as cruise passengers

Washoe County health officials identified 40 Nevadans as passengers on the Grand Princess cruise ship. They say they have a testing plan in place.

www.rgj.com

 

[Pushka]

There is now going to be a showdown by the look of it between the Victorian government health Minister and the GPs.
'Shambles': Dr Kerryn Phelps joins GPs lashing government on coronavirus

The GPs want an apology. And are not happy about having to go to Bunnings to buy supplies which may or may not be available and they will run out shortly anyway.

Meanwhile, in the USA anything could be happening because there are insufficient test kits. I’ve been following some of the naive comments on the trip advisor forum. Even though the New York Times is writing very good articles, and the Atlantic as someone here posted a link to, the people don’t seem to realise or accept what trouble they could be in.

Isn't or wasn't Kerryn Phelps a politician? has a bit of other skin in the game methinks.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Isn't or wasn't Kerryn Phelps a politician? has a bit of other skin in the game methinks.

Yes but she’s still making good sense in this complaint I suggest.