A surprise ‘code yellow’ has been called for the Royal Darwin and Palmerston Regional hospitals amid “capacity challenges”, just weeks after Health Minister Steve Edgington said there was no need to make emergency capacity orders because his department was effectively managing patient flows.
The Health Department issued the code yellow late on Tuesday afternoon, citing an “increase in the number of patients requiring ongoing acute care” at both hospitals.
“To manage the situation, a Code Yellow has been called across the Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital, in line with the NT Health Capacity Management Plan,” the statement said.
“As part of this work, a range of measures have been implemented to ease pressure and improve patient flow and discharges.”
Those measures were not disclosed in the statement but have previously led to the cancellation of all elective surgery, the early discharge of patients and moving patients around through the system.
“Please be kind to our staff during these periods of high demand,” the statement said.
“If you are experiencing a health emergency, call Triple Zero (000) and ask for an ambulance.”
Mr Edgington said on Mix 104.9 on June 24 that he had not ordered the department to stop calling code yellows and had criticised the former Labor government of calling too many code yellows.
“[We’re] not calling code yellows because what they’re doing is that they’ve changed the way that they’re managing patients in the ED, and that’s by having what they call 15 minute huddles,” he said.
“It’s about bringing people together and working together on dealing with the current workload coming through ED. So, managing patient flow is what has changed since we came into government., new CEO, new ways of doing business.”
The Australian Medical Association NT president Dr John Zorbas criticised the Minister’s claims last month and said Royal Darwin Hospital simply does not have enough beds to serve the population, regardless of code yellows being called.
“The fixation on code yellows is semantics. You can call it whatever you want. The fact remains that Royal Darwin Hospital is dangerously full on a daily basis,” he said.
The AMA NT called on the government to acknowledge “access block” to properly gauge the strain on hospital resources. Access block occurs when a decision is made to admit a patient to hospital as an inpatient, but it takes more than eight hours for the patient to get to the relevant ward at the hospital, which can result in “increased harm to patients”.
“Our doctors tell us that Royal Darwin Hospital has been in access block almost every day of this year, and this is the proof that RDH doesn’t have the beds it needs to provide the care that Territorians need,” Dr Zorbas said.
“The solution to access block is a hospital with enough beds to accommodate their patients.”
“Our Doctors tell us that Royal Darwin Hospital has been in ‘access block’ almost every day of this year . . . Dr Zorbas said.” Clearly Dr Zorbas has no option other than to butt his head against a brick wall? FOR HOW LONG . . . the real question? Bed(s) are a question of space, cost. And personnel. Add a fourth. Indigenous / numeration. Speak up territorians (and that includes Indigenous). Or nothing changes. Rural / Remote: Is a Federal Govt. responsibility. Rural / Urban, a Territory responsibility!