Now a COVID-19 streaming hospital, Bendigo Health staff continue to help and assist the sickest of patients battling coronavirus.

For over 18 months, doctor Steph Wesley has been working as a member of the ICU team at Bendigo Health.

Dr Wesley said her role involves caring for the sickest patients in the hospital, including those who had contracted COVID-19.

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She said the past 18 months hadn't been easy.

"Most of our patients are on ventilators, sedated or in comas and obviously, right now we have been looking after Covid patients," she said.

Like many healthcare workers, Dr Wesley never imagined herself working during a pandemic.

"It was nothing that we ever really thought would happen in Australia and certainly not to this extent on a global level," she said.

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"It's really hard work, these patients that are in intensive care are really sick and every single patient that is in intensive care with COVID has been intubated and put on a ventilator."

At Bendigo Health, Dr Wesley said the pandemic had changed the way they work and said over the past few months new protocols have been introduced.

"Covid has changed the way we work on a day-to-day basis, the PPE, the masks, the gowns and the fact that we have to keep these patients in rooms by themselves," she said.

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"It is hard on the nursing staff who are in there for 10-hour shifts but it's a different way to work than we are used to.

"It also has increased our workload a lot and so our ICU in Bendigo went from taking six patients to taking up to nine and we are looking at expanding that."

Another change Ms Wesley said was the introduction of "proning" patients.

"One thing that we have been doing differently with our COVID patients is something called proning," she said.

"We have been flipping patients from their backs to their stomach for a period of 16 hours."

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"We have been also using this technique in the ward and we have seen a huge decrease in the oxygen they are using when we do that technique.

"Some patients have been able to avoid ICU because of this."

The biggest challenge, Dr Wesley said she has had to deal with over the past 18 months was not seeing visitors in the hospitals.

"It's really hard to communicate to families about just how sick their loved one is," she said.

"We are spending a lot of time on the phone with them and keeping them updated but it's not the same as them being able to come in and hold their hand."

"We can deal with extra patients, we can work longer hours but that human connection that our patients need and that we need isn't there."'

Assistant Nurse Unit Manager Jessica Nunn has been working at Bendigo Health for over a decade.

She said one of the biggest changes she had noticed over the past 18 months was the over-reliance on technology.

She said it was challenging not being able to support family members and one big thing that they started taking up was Zoom calls.

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"We had a patient turn 101 last year and our team and doctors organsied a zoom call for them and their family," she said.

"We not only made sure they were healthy but we have also been making sure they have their phones with them or assist them with their technology and we just try and do our best to keep them informed."

For Bendigo Health staff, preparation for the pandemic started back in March 2020.

Assistant Nurse Unit Manager Tamara Cottingham said the hospital began preparing for an influx of patients by introducing different producers and protocols.

One of the toughest part of the job for Ms Cottingham has been the conditions of intensive care.

"The hardest part with intensive care, is that it's really one on one," she said.

"You are with one patient, you can't leave the room and you can only leave when someone give you a break, working those long hours in full PPE can be pretty challenging.

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"Not being to walk away, grab a drink, go to the bathroom when you want to, are all things that make it a challenge."

Despite any changes, Ms Cottingham said she continued to enjoy her job and she continues to love helping people and the regional community.

ICU Nurse Unit Manager Penny Spencer encouraged all members of the community to get vaccinated as the state reopens.

"We are all double vaxxed, we have a good supply of PPE and from a healthcare perspective, we feel very confident we will be able to look after these patients but we hope people still follow the rules," she said.

Ms Spencer said despite numbers of cases continuing to rise, she was confident her team would be able to get the job done and continue to protect the community.

"The staff and our committed and dedicated that are, our team have done extra shifts, double shifts, came off annual leave," she said.

"Our frontline workers feel passionate about what they do and the level of care the exists for our patients is so high and it's really good to be part of that team and put care at the forefront."

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