Nick Coatsworth: Stop talking about masks and fix Australia’s Covid hospital control policies

A leading Australian doctor has urged supporters of mandatory mask wearing to continue and push for health system reform as Covid-19 control policies ‘make it difficult’ for hospitals nationwide.

Infectious disease physician Dr Nick Coatsworth said hospital circulation was severely disrupted when patients, who were registered for surgery, contracted Covid and were placed at the bottom of the hospitalization list.

Dr Coatsworth explained on Wednesday that operating theaters were left unused for hours because Covid-19 control policies caused a backlog of patients.

Infectious diseases doctor Nick Coatsworth (pictured) said countries using strong masks could not change the ‘trajectory of the virus’

Dr Coatsworth told the Today programme: “Hospitals across Australia are constipated, we need to get patients through them.

‘A lot of patients with Covid don’t actually have Covid lung disease. They have other problems like appendicitis or broken femur or something like that.

‘The policies that we put in place to control Covid in hospitals are putting those patients at the bottom of the theater list and they will be affected until the next day.

“Of course, you can’t get in the front door of the hospital, if you’re a hospitalized patient and you’re stuck in the emergency department and then the ambulance starts rushing.”

Dr Coatsworth thinks mask advocates need to push for a change in the hospital system.

Dr Coatsworth said: “There is no country in the world, even those that use masks really well, that has had any change in the trajectory of the virus.

‘While we’re talking about that (using masks) and not about changing the system, there’s going to be a problem.

‘Control policies are causing problems for us… the longer people wait in the hospital, the less quality the care we provide and that’s a problem.’

Dr Coatsworth urges Australians to push for health system reforms as Covid-19 control policies ‘constipate’ hospitals across the country instead of advocating for a return to the mask mandate (pictured, people queuing for a Covid-19 PCR test in Melbourne)

Hospitalization rates hit a record high on Monday as the country grapples with the Covid-19 and Flu ‘pandemic’.

Official figures reveal that 5,571 patients were hospitalized with Covid on Wednesday, eclipsing the previous record of 5,390 during the first wave of Omicrons in January.

This has jumped from about 3,000 a month ago, amid the spread of the highly infectious but equally mild BA.4 and BA.5 subvariables.

The new Labor Government has opposed calls to reintroduce social restrictions but has recommended that people wear masks indoors and businesses allow employees to work from home if they can.