A desperate nurse is calling for Australians to get vaccinated as Victoria struggles to cope with a seemingly never-ending increase in Covid-infected patients.
Katie, who didn’t want her surname revealed, works in the emergency department of a public hospital in Melbourne and took to Instagram to highlight just how much health workers are struggling during the pandemic.
‘I have worked as an ED nurse for just short of five years, and what should be the beginning of my career, feels like the end, and my passion has been short-lived,’ she wrote.
‘I look around at our emergency department every day, myself and my colleagues are burnt out and at breaking point.
‘Our job is stressful, to say the least … our emergency departments, our hospitals, our healthcare services, and our facilities are inundated, and progressively worsening as each day passes.’
In her open letter, which she shared on social media, the nurse says she fears many health workers are at breaking point (stock image)
The number of people hospitalised with Covid in Victoria is currently 241, the highest number since September last year.
The nurse stressed that the situation will only worsen leading into the Christmas period.
‘We fear for those who need our services desperately but cannot or will not have access to them due to our current surge in demand,’ she said.
‘When our hospitals are at capacity, and no beds are left, how will we treat you?
‘With the projected numbers of emergency presentations over the next few weeks, I am almost certain we cannot and will not cope, because our limits are already stretched.’
She went on to point out many patients recovering in hospitals across the state are unvaccinated.
‘It is clear vaccinations work, we have eradicated diseases time and time again,’ she said. ‘Without them, we’d be lucky if our lives surpassed the age of 30.
‘Please listen to us, for this is our field, and we simply are the experts.’
A portion of the open letter where the nurse reveals the stress that accompanies life in the emergency room of a hospital in Melbourne during the pandemic
The nurse decided to share her open letter on social media in a bid to change the perspective of many Covid doubters.
‘There is a lot of division between people getting vaccinated and not vaccinated – I thought maybe if people understood what we see and how we view it, they might understand (getting vaccinated) is not about someone trying to control you, or your own personal freedom,’ she told the Herald Sun.
‘It’s more about everyone else being safe and prioritising the health of people you love and those of strangers.’
On Tuesday, Victoria recorded 603 new locally-acquired Covid-19 cases and one death.
It is the first time the state has surpassed the 600-case mark for positive cases in one day since the start of the Delta outbreak of the virus.
There are now 6,000 active cases across Victoria, with the death toll from the current outbreak sitting at 13.
A total of 40,811 vaccines were administered in state-run hubs on Monday – a figure Health Minister Martin Foley said was higher than in any other Australian state.
‘I think that just goes to point that there is a very strong appetite for Victorians to go out there and get vaccinated because they know it’s the pathway to getting to the other side of this pandemic,’ he said.
It comes after the government controversially closed construction sites across Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong, Mitchell Shire and the Surf Coast for two weeks on Monday following protests in Melbourne over a vaccine mandate for the industry.
Further violent scenes unfolded on Tuesday, with anti-vaxxer protesters chasing police and pelting squad cars with cans as Melbourne’s ‘freedom’ rally descended into anarchy.
Footage showed tradesmen in hi-vis clothing kicking police cars in the Melbourne CBD as thousands of demonstrators massed outside Victoria’s Parliament House and a TV reporter was assaulted and doused with urine in vile scenes.
Furious construction workers and anti-vaxxers took to the streets – many of them distraught – after a tradesman took his own life at a construction site earlier in the day.