An immunocompromised patient, who was recently exposed to COVID-19 at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital while waiting for a ward, said vulnerable people in Australia are being considered “acceptable collateral losses” and has called upon the government “to recognise and remember that we’re human”.
“It’s about time that we start having a frank discussion about the fact that, throughout this pandemic, members of vulnerable communities have been considered as acceptable collateral losses, which is a pretty abhorrent position for the state and federal governments to have taken,” Harry Iles-Mann told SBS News.
Mr Iles-Mann, who has received two liver transplants since August 2020, cannot risk contracting COVID-19 — not even the coronavirus’s Omicron variant, widely considered by experts to be far milder than Delta.
His severely immunocompromised condition means contracting the infection could have dire health consequences.
But on Tuesday, after arriving at the emergency unit of the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) Hospital, Mr Iles-Mann had to wait for several hours for a ward in a small waiting room “about four metres by six metres” with other patients, one of whom ended up testing positive for COVID-19.
“Shortly after I got a bed in the ward, I was informed by nursing staff that I would now need to isolate because a patient that I had been in close proximity to down in emergency has actually returned a positive COVID swab,” he said.
In order to avoid the infection, Mr Iles-Mann has practically spent the past two years either self-isolating at his house in Epping, in Sydney’s west, or recovering from serious ailments at the RPA.
For him to have been exposed to the virus at a hospital of all places is simply frustrating, he said.
“We have reached such a crisis point of our health system being overburdened and our workforce being understaffed that very basic standards of safety and healthcare are not actually possible to uphold,” he said.
Mr Iles-Mann, who had tested negative on a rapid antigen test when he arrived at the RPA on Tuesday morning, was wearing an “appropriate medical-grade mask” while waiting for a ward.
The room at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where Harry Iles-Mann is currently self isolating. Source: Supplied
He has since tested negative for COVID-19 but is still isolating and being monitored for symptoms.
SBS News contacted the Department of Health for a comment on this matter.
The email was referred to the RPA.
“The prevalence of COVID-19 in the community is currently very high. Every effort is made to minimise the risk of exposure to patients while they are in our hospitals and all patients are strongly encouraged to wear face masks during their stay,” an RPA spokesperson told SBS News.
“NSW Health has the largest and most skilled health workforce in the country, including staff who are highly experienced in dealing with immunocompromised patients.
“Arrangements are in place to ensure such patients are protected from infection throughout their stay,” the spokesperson said.
Recent changes to COVID-19 guidelines, such as narrowing the definition of “close contact”, have increased the virus-related health risks for thousands of vulnerable people in Australia.
“The trouble with learning to live with COVID-19, which is what our governments keep telling us, does mean that those who are frail, the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, are at great risks and need protection,” epidemiologist from the University of South Australia Adrian Esterman told SBS News.
“That’s why they must be given top-priority protection, including booster shots, but also not being exposed to COVID-19 in our health system,” he said.
Even though Mr Iles-Mann has received his booster shot, Professor Esterman said immunocompromised people get much lower protection from vaccination.
“Omicron is amazingly transmissible and because of that it’s far more likely to infect someone who has got a compromised immune system,” Professor Esterman said.
While Mr Iles-Mann was exposed to COVID-19 at the RPA, he doesn’t hold the hospital or the frontline workers who tended to him responsible.
“This situation that I am now in is not through any failure by healthcare workers to do their job diligently. We have just reached a point [where] the system is so overwhelmed that we’re starting to see lots of things slipping through the net for no other reason than everyone is exhausted and incredibly burdened,” he said.
“To me, this is evidence at a level of leadership and policymaking in state and federal politics that has, through negligence and inaction, allowed our health system to get to a point where there are going to be adverse events like this,” he said.
