Tamworth Country Music Festival 2022: health professionals confident hospital can cope with increased COVID-19 cases

With the 50^th Tamworth Country Music Festival set to kick off on Monday, doctors, GPS and hospital staff are preparing for an influx of visitors.

Back in January, the original dates of the festival, Tamworth GP Dr Ian Kamerman told the Leader he could see no way the festival could safely go ahead.

But with the increased rates in vaccinations and the availability of anti-viral treatments, Dr Kamerman said the new festival dates posed less of a risk to the healthcare system and rather reflected the need to "live with COVID".

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"I'm more confident that there's a much better capacity to manage people who do get symptoms and who are at risk of becoming quite unwell," Dr Kamerman said.

With the hospitals not at the start of their training year, Dr Kamerman said staff would be more equipped to respond to the presenting patients.

Hunter New England Health rural and regional health executive director, Susan Heyman, said planning and preparation had taken place to ensure Tamworth hospital would be able to respond to health care needs.

"We've got the experience of dealing with COVID over the last couple of years, we've got a really good sense of the precautions we need to take in terms of the people that may present," Ms Heyman said.

"It's about marrying that planning and knowledge with our knowledge and planning around the country music festival."

Despite the emergency short stay unit operating on reduced capacity, Ms Heyman said she believed the hospital was "well placed" to staff the different wards appropriately.

While Dr Kamerman was confident in the health care system's ability to cope, he said he was concerned about the capacity for local businesses to keep staff numbers up - including the hospital.

"I think the bigger issue now will be maintaining the workforce," he said.

Ms Heyman said the hospital had recognised the likelihood of absences due to COVID-19 and had asked staff to avoid booking leave during the festival to ensure their availability.

With COVID-19 cases currently sweeping through schools, Dr Kamerman said the holidays would have acted as a "circuit breaker" to bring the situation under control, but he believed these cases would be replaced, and potentially increased by the country music festival.

"Our numbers will probably increase rather than decrease during the festival and in the first weeks after the festival," Dr Kamerman said.

With the festival taking place in the cooler months, Ms Heyman said this would be a "positive" for the hospital and would hopefully decrease the presentations of people suffering heat stroke and dehydration

Those attending the festival are advised to wear a mask, social distance where possible, keep track of their alcohol consumption, opt for outdoor venues and keep up-to-date with their COVID-19 and flu vaccinations.

Ms Heyman said if campers contract COVID-19 during their stay they need to make a "wise decision" about either travelling home or isolating in their tents.

As of Monday there are 2324 active cases of COVID-19 in the Tamworth local government area.

Over the Easter long weekend Tamworth Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology Walk-In Clinic, Tamworth Hospital Clinic, Tamworth Laverty Pathology Drive-through Clinic and the Tamworth Respiratory Clinic will all be closed for PCR testing, but will reopen on Tuesday.

Opening hours for testing clinics during the Tamworth Country Music Festival can be accessed here.

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