A handful of people inside Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s emergency department (ED) on Tuesday night have now been listed as a close contact.A health source familiar with the situation told The Daily Telegraph dozens of patients in the department were also moved to the precautionary Covid isolation ward.“We have had a case in ED so all patients in ED overnight have been admitted as close contacts whether or not they needed to be in hospital, so 16 people in and Covid wards full and that section of ED closed and we are not accepting patients via ambulance to ED,” they said. While deep cleaning of the emergency department was underway last night, some ambulances were redirected to nearby hospitals, however, a spokesperson for NSW Health denied the emergency department was closed.They said the department was accepting patients and only a small area was closed for cleaning.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO IN THE PLAYER ABOVEAudio has since emerged of a NSW Ambulance transporting a 53-year-old female Covid patient being turned away from RPA at 10.33pm. It is understood the woman was not admitted to another hospital for two hours.“We are now outside ED at RPA we’re not allowed in, apparently they’re not accepting Covid-positive patients anymore and they’re going to deal with it,” a paramedic said. “There might be long delays here.”Just an hour earlier, the ambulance was tasked to transfer the patient to RPA Hospital, however, is turned away on arrival.It is not until 11.09pm that the ambulance is given clearance to redirect to Concord Hospital. The ambulance leaves at 11.24pm, however, the patient is not offloaded for another hour and a half.“If you can give Concord heads up and make sure they do have a bed for our patient please,” she says.Daily Telegraph – News Feed latest episode“They are working on getting a bed for that patient, it’s not ready yet so you may ahve to wait but they said they are accepting,” the officer responds. However, just 30 minutes later the paramedic is told “there’s no beds.. so we don’t have a time frame when we’ll offload.”It is not until 12.45am the ambulance is finally given clearance to offload the patient at Concord Hospital.In a statement, Dr Teresa Anderson, Chief Executive of Sydney Local Health District said “RPA Hospital is not closed.”“A Covid-19 patient attended the hospital’s emergency department this afternoon … Some ambulances were redistributedf to other hospitals within the District. No ambulances were turned away from RPA,” she said. She said no staff have been identified as close or casual contacts. The hospital’s emergency department is now fully operational. NAT – Stay Informed – Social Media
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