Health
1News

ICU nurse in managed isolation worried about catching Covid-19 because of how facility was run

November 5, 2020

The intensive care nurse has criticised the way the Commodore facility is being run.

An ICU nurse staying in managed isolation says she worried about catching Covid-19 because of how the facility was run. 

Debbie Stick, who has been at Christchurch’s Commodore Airport Hotel for the past 13 days after arriving from the UK, is now calling for compulsory Covid-19 tests before people can board flights to New Zealand.

She said she asked for a Covid-19 test - which came back negative - before coming to New Zealand.

“I felt the nation here in New Zealand had done a really good job. I wasn't going to be the one that brought anything in.”

Stick is also calling for segregated exercise areas until people have returned a negative test. She told 1 NEWS she exercised with new arrivals despite returning a negative day three test. 

“I thought, nah, this isn't as safe as you want it to be in a managed isolation unit.”

But, a Ministry of Business and Innovation spokesperson said when returnees at different stages of their stay are in the same area, very strict procedures are in place. 

The spokesperson said there wasn’t a risk if people wore masks and stayed two metres apart.

It comes as an exit plan is being worked out for the release of fishermen from Ukraine and Russia from the Sudima Hotel in Christchurch. Thirty-one fishermen in the group tested positive for Covid-19.

All the fishermen tested negative for Covid-19 before boarding their flight, the Director-General of Health says.

Two healthcare staff at the managed isolation facility then tested positive earlier this week. Genome sequencing of one of the cases showed they had the same strain of the virus as five of the fishing crew. 

It’s prompted the nurse’s union to call for an urgent review of how the facilities are run. 

Public health expert Nick Wilson is also calling for a review, telling RNZ earlier this week the situation at the Sudima should be seen as a system failure. 

But, University of Auckland microbiologist Dr Siouxie Wiles said the quick detection of the case of the second staff member showed New Zealand’s processes at the border “are working really well”.

“It’s just another example how our processes are working really well, that the people that are working in managed isolation and quarantine and around the borders are being tested regularly,” she said.

National Party leader Judith Collins said she was “very concerned”.

“[The Government] they need to take responsibility and I have said it’s time for us to have a review.”

Collins said she felt sorry for the nurses and health staff at the facilities “where they feel that their health and safety is not being properly protected”.

SHARE ME

More Stories