Albury GP Rebecca McGowan says the health system is not prepared

On Wednesday, NSW Health revealed 681 cases have been recorded in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, while Albury Wodonga Health recorded 171 cases in the same period.

Innovation Health's Dr Rebecca McGowan said her patients were having trouble finding Rapid Antigen Tests or getting a PCR test.

"This didn't come upon us all suddenly, this isn't February 2020, this is January 2022," she said.

"And there is that sense of frustration that it's all happening now and people are floundering and we GPs are saying it could have been managed better.

"We knew this was going to happen, we may not have known about omicron, but we knew that a tsunami wave of COVID infection was going to happen.

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"We've prepared for it for over two years, and when it's happened, it's appeared that we're all scrambling and people are worried, people are frightened and people are not able to access the tests and that's really impacting on their health and their ability to work."

Dr McGowan said she was concerned about the hospital system's ability to cope.

"I'm seeing very sick patients that normally we would be able to send to the emergency department, but... we're not sure whether or not they'll be able to see someone or when they'll be able to see someone," she said.

"Now there is a real valid concern that that chain, that trust that we have with our medical colleagues, through no fault of their own in the hospital, but we see that chain is faltering.

"And its a peak time for holiday so doctors are off on leave or they're off on COVID and here we are with this tsunami coming ... it's a disaster in the making."

An Albury Wodonga Health spokeswoman did not say how many staff were in isolation due to COVID-19, but said the health service was experiencing a considerable increase in unplanned leave due to the requirement for staff to isolate.

"This is not surprising, given the widespread transmission of COVID across the community and 20 - 50 years age range," she said.

"We have conducted significant work in this space to ensure that we have the most suitably qualified and experienced employees in time of crisis or an emergency situation to enable the continuous delivery of high quality safe services across and throughout our community."

The spokeswoman said plans were in place to ensure that critical services continued to provide timely, safe, high-quality healthcare to the region.

"The only service currently impacted by the latest COVID outbreak is elective surgery," she said.

"As of 6 January, non-urgent elective surgery was paused for public and private hospitals across Victoria, including Albury and Wodonga hospitals."

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