Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital are currently under a code yellow, which the government said is due to an increase in aged care patients requiring ongoing acute care, with the code yellow ordered amid political bickering over the proposed new $60 million aged care facility.
The alert was issued Tuesday morning, stating that 44 aged care patients occupying beds at Royal Darwin Hospital and in Palmerston “because there are no beds available in residential aged care”.
The “bed block” issue will see “a range of measures” taken to “ease pressure and improve patient flow and discharges”, but traditionally sees elective surgeries and other procedures cancelled, the discharging of patients early, and moving patients around through the system.
Last week, the Federal Government issued expressions of interest for the long-delayed $60 million, 120-bed aged care facility, but Health Minister Steve Edgington said the project needs to be built as soon as possible and used the latest code yellow as a reason to put pressure on the Commonwealth.
“The Commonwealth has set a three-year construction deadline, but we will be advocating for it to be built as soon as possible,” he told the NT News just before his department ordered the latest code yellow.
He added the NT Government has offered land near the Palmerston hospital for the new facility, “so, let’s get on with the job”.
“Getting this new aged care facility up and running will crucially ease pressures at Royal Darwin Hospital,” Mr Edgington said.
As many as 80 hospital beds are occupied by patients every day who need aged care, resulting in an annual cost of $40 million for Territory taxpayers, Mr Edgington said.
The facility, funded by the federal government’s Aged Care Capital Assistance Program, which allocates up to $60 million, aims to alleviate pressure on local hospitals by decreasing the number of aged care patients occupying vital hospital beds.
Labor Solomon MP Luke Gosling said last week that older Australians in Darwin will have access to quality residential aged care with the establishment of the new facility.
Mr Gosling anticipates that construction will begin in the Dry Season next year, emphasising prompt delivery from the EOI applicants.
The Federal Government also allocated nearly $40 million in September for other aged care projects in the Territory, outside Darwin and Palmerston.
Back in June, Mr Edgington said there was no need to call code yellows for the hospitals because health staff had “changed the way that they’re managing patients in the ED”, but then called a code yellow a week later.
The AMA NT at the time told the government to commit to fixing the bed block issues at RDH – which were constant – instead of fixating on calling code yellows.
The latest code yellow was announced after Mr Edgington provided his lines to the NT News for the article on the front page titled ‘Let’s get cracking’, calling on the Commonwealth to hurry up with the new aged care facility.
Territory Labor Opposition health spokesman Dheran Young said the problems at the hospitals were due to the CLP Government “failing to take meaningful action to alleviate the burdens on our hospitals”.
“Essential regional health infrastructure investments have been cut, leaving residents with no choice but to travel to our major centres for care, putting further pressure on hospitals,” he said.
NT Health said In the event of a health emergency during the latest code yellow, individuals are urged to call Triple Zero (000) immediately to request an ambulance.
For those requiring non-emergency medical assistance, the Palmerston Urgent Care Clinic is available to provide urgent care. Those uncertain about managing an illness or injury, can find guidance by visiting www.healthdirect.gov.au or calling Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 for free support, the government said.
Does anyone remember Royal Darwin Hospital empty during early days of COVID?
Remember the questioning , are you really sick, do you have a appointment?
Remember the fear you will catch COVID if you goto RDH so I better rethink going there.
Remember the layers of security to get in the place?
Itinerants where “Encouraged” to go back to community hence RDH wards where near empty!
RDH gets a lot of money for looking after people who simply need a bed and a feed which means they cannot afford to not have the place full of that cohort of people. That translates to hours of waiting at A&E, hours of RAMPING by Ambulances, and a lot of waiting to get transferred from Accident & Emergency to the Wards.
If people who where not sick where not in Hospital, the place would never attain Code Yellow! Money speaks volumes.