Canberra hospitals in 'bed block' after cases hit over 1000 for the first time in a month

Speaking Thursday morning on ABC Radio Canberra, Ms Stephen-Smith said the reason elective surgeries are being postponed or people have long emergency ward waits relates to patient demand.

"It's largely about the fact that there is such a high level of demand on our hospital services at the moment that we have essentially bed block - a lot of very full wards and we're really working very hard to ensure that people are discharged in a timely way," she said.

"We've effectively got every bed open across Canberra Hospital, University of Canberra Hospital ... and Calvary. So we're actually seeing very high levels of activity."

Another reason for hospitals struggling is staff needing to isolate due to COVID-19. Ms Stephen-Smith confirmed as of Wednesday, 85 were off from work across the ACT's public and private hospitals.

"That is the lowest daily figure that we've had this year. So it peaked at 198 on the first of April and continued to see figures above 150 into May," she said.

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The territory recorded 1015 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours until 8pm Wednesday, with 89 people in hospital, two in the ICU and one on ventilation.

Canberra Health Services chief operating officer Cathie O'Neill said managing these record case numbers is "a constant challenge" however noted the hospitals are "continuing to manage within our bed base to provide exceptional care for all patients".

"Our health services are under more pressure than they have ever been, so it's important that we keep the emergency department for emergencies," she said.

Ms O'Neill said they expected the number of ICU or ventilator patients to be at "low numbers" but cautioned ward numbers could go up and down.

"We expect we will continue to see low numbers of patients requiring ventilation, thanks to the ACT's high vaccination rates and the increased use of oral antiviral medicines for patients most at risk," she said.

"This week's modelling predicts about 75 patients with COVID-19 in Canberra's public hospitals, with up to six in ICU."

COVID cases are also expected to continue fluctuating, as Ms O'Neill said "cases [are] being picked up through our routine surveillance testing in hospital where they may otherwise have gone undetected and partly to the time lag between cases and hospitalisation".

While patients with milder conditions "typically remain in their normal ward" if they catch COVID, "infection control is managed through the use of medihoods, PPE and air purifiers".

"The exception is for patients, including those in our cancer wards, who are most at risk of severe disease," Ms O'Neill said.

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