Amongst the many shortcomings of the Government’s approach to COVID has been the total lack of any advice about what to do, if you are unfortunate enough to get COVID, as your reporter has found out (“What to do if you catch COVID”, PP 043).
When I first felt what seemed like COVID symptoms coming on, I went to the ER at Gosford Hospital, as that seemed the sensible thing to do.
To my surprise, the ER would not even give me a COVID test.
I was examined by a nurse who decided that I was not sick enough to be admitted and I was sent home, without my problem even being diagnosed.
Of course, it could have been just a severe bout of ‘flu, but this seemed a very off-hand way of dealing with what could be, for me at 90 years of age and with serious underlying health problems, a high level of risk.
The next day, I was worse, and my daughter drove me to the testing centre.
We arrived at opening time, and it took us four hours to reach the test site.
At this stage, I noticed that there was only a handful of cars still in line behind us, so obviously people who arrived more than a few minutes after opening time were told that they would not get a test that day and were sent home: not the best way to encourage prompt testing.
Presumably, to get to the head of the line, one had to arrive at least three hours before opening and twiddle one’s thumbs until opening time, so everyone in the line wasted three or four hours out of the day, because nobody bothered to organize a proper system for scheduling tests.
It can hardly have escaped notice that COVID tests have been going on for months, so it would have required only a little competence at the management level to put a more friendly and efficient arrangement in place.
On top of that, we have had the RAT fiasco.
If RAT kits had been readily available, 80% of the people in the test line with me wouldn’t even have had to come, because they would have had a negative test at home and could have gone about their business in the normal way.
Didn’t any economist count up the cost of the wasted time in test queues and work out that RAT kits made financial sense?
It is a disgrace that this Government expects the public at large to pay for test kits (assuming there is actually one available somewhere, since I have yet to see one on sale), when the epidemic is clearly a national issue, and, without accurate test data, all actions to combat COVID are being taken in the dark.
Perhaps, the Government’s policy is designed to minimize the amount of testing and, hence, the level of detection of cases: all experts seem to be agreed that the true number of cases far exceeds the official figures, and the Government has a strong incentive not to reveal the real state of affairs, since that would undermine its determination, come hell or high water, not to reintroduce precautionary measures.
One interesting aspect of my experience was that I received a telephone call every day to check on my condition and to ask whether my “package” had arrived.
Since I never received any “package”, I wonder whether someone can enlighten me as to what this mysterious contribution to my welfare was supposed to be.
I’d hate to go to a COVID grave with my curiosity unsatisfied.
Email, Jan 24
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy