A baby born at 25 weeks in Australia has about an 80 per cent chance of survival — but to do so, they need intensive care, a lengthy stay in hospital and, often, ongoing specialist care.
When tiny Esther Knowland made her very premature arrival in December last year, it was the start of a five-and-a-half-month hospital stay.
She is now at home, on the far north coast of New South Wales, but requires many regular appointments with her medical specialists who are based just across the Queensland border at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
But Esther's mum, Prue Knowland, says taking her daughter to those appointments over the past few months has been a "horrible" experience.
COVID-related rules mean NSW patients are treated as though they have COVID, even if they return negative results.
Ms Knowland says when she takes Esther to the hospital for appointments, they are required to stay in a sealed room and are treated only by staff wearing full PPE.
"It was very distressing and I don't think at the moment Esther's getting the care she deserves or needs."
Patients treated as if they have 'plague'
A leading Northern Rivers-based paediatrician, Dr Chris Ingall, said NSW patients seeking treatment over the border were being ostracised due to COVID concerns
Dr Ingall said the Queensland health bureaucracy had imposed the strict conditions.
"People from the Northern Rivers are still being treated like lepers," he said.
"They'll be put into an isolation room, maybe talked to through the door or window as if they are carrying some terrible plague when, in fact, they are double-vaxxed and have a negative COVID swab under their belt."
Dr Ingall said the risk-management protocols in Queensland hospitals did not make sense.
"These are, again, double-vaxxed, proven COVID negative in the last 72 hours and well.
"It doesn't make any sense in terms of the virus and virus risk."
Dr Ingall said he had patients with serious health concerns who refused to travel to Queensland for appointments because of the way they were treated.
Ms Knowland said many of her daughter's specialist doctors had been "really great", but other staff in the hospital had been harder to deal with.
She said she overheard staff complaining about putting on the PPE to come and see Esther during a recent stay.
"We had a doctor on the ward that called me and asked me to read out what medications the ophthalmologist had given Esther because it was a hassle to get into the PPE and come into the room," she said.
Ms Knowland said providing a negative COVID-19 test made no difference to how they were treated.
"I said, 'I'm happy to be tested,' and they said it doesn't matter," she said.
Queensland prioritises its own
In a statement, Queensland Health said NSW residents from the non-restricted border zone who usually received regular health care in Queensland could still do so if they were unable to access appropriate care closer to home.
However, it said its priority was to protect vulnerable Queenslanders, including every patient and staff member in Queensland hospitals.
Queensland Health said this meant additional precautions may be required for those people coming from the border zone or hotspots.
