Hospitals bordering the Waikato are bracing for Delta’s arrival and the resulting surge in cases.
Senior clinicians at Taranaki Base Hospital say it’s only a matter of time until the first positive case is detected there.
“Unfortunately Delta is on the way. I think it will be here in the next few weeks, but it’s one of these things that does keep me lying awake at night,” Dr Campbell White said.
White said a shortage of critical care nurses to operate the hospital's six ventilators, and any others needed in a serious outbreak, also worried him.
“New Zealand’s [critical care capacity] runs at capacity most of the time and there isn't a whole lot of people out there we can just bring in,” he said.
“I see it like a slow-motion train wreck.”
Meanwhile, Rotorua Hospital is ready for cases as early as Monday.
Lakes DHB incident controller Gary Lees said he was “almost certain” Covid-19 would reach Rotorua soon.
“I’d love to be proven wrong.”
The DHB was drawing from experience in its planning - it treated Covid-19 patients admitted from the city's MIQ facilities.
Rotorua Hospital has four negative pressure rooms and capacity to dedicate one ward solely to Covid patients.
Lees said the hospital could care for about 25 people with Covid-19.
He said any higher than that would be a “struggle”.
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