NT Health buys Darwin Private Hospital ward to manage Covid surge at Royal Darwin
OUR HEALTH CRISIS: The Commonwealth will foot the bill for NT Health needing to commandeer an entire ward of the Darwin Private Hospital.
Northern Territory
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THE commandeering of a private hospital ward by the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) is being paid for by the commonwealth.
The NT News understands the Corella ward at Darwin Private Hospital, which has been taken over by NT Health, is federally funded.
NT Health officials have not been able to confirm a cost to taxpayers for the ward, which has 23 beds.
The NT recorded 459 cases of Covid-19 until 8pm on Wednesday, including four in Yirrkala but the lockdown there still ended at 2pm on Thursday following a testing surge.
There were 54 patients in hospital, including five patients in acute care requiring oxygen. One patient was in intensive care.
Among the latest cases were two at the Darwin Correctional Centre, eight infections at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre and two positive results at the Barkly Work Camp.
Justice Minister Selena Uibo said Corrections was responding to the situation at its facilities amid growing case numbers among guards and inmates.
“Our corrections officers have acted extremely quickly in regards to this Covid safety plan … and ensuring the risk of spread within our facilities is mitigated and that risk is kept at a minimum,” Ms Uibo said.
When asked whether the facilities were accepting new inmates, she said general operations were continuing.
“The access to legal advice, legal practitioners and of course to court hearings has been maintained,” Ms Lawler said.
A lockdown in Galiwin’ku will continue until Monday, with 15 new infections reported on Thursday.
The source of a mystery outbreak in Umbakumba has been traced back to interstate travel. Meanwhile, the Groote Eylandt community recorded 10 new cases, in addition to the shock discovery of three infected individuals in the community on Wednesday.
There were 14 new cases in Yuendumu and 10 infections in Ntaria and surrounding regions.
Chief health officer Hugh Heggie said on Wednesday he anticipated the Territory’s Covid-19 outbreak to peak in the first week of February.
Dr Heggie said 80 per cent of cases were the Omicron variant.
‘Under pressure’ RDH prompted rental of private hospital ward: AMA
THE decision by NT Health to bed buy an entire ward of the Darwin Private Hospital (DPH) shows the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) is coming under “very significant pressure”, the Australian Medical Association NT has said.
It came as health authorities could not provide an estimate for how much the drastic step could cost taxpayers.
It was revealed on Tuesday that the RDH had committed to a bed buy of the entire Corella Ward at the neighbouring private facility, just hours after the federal government moved to allow the private health system to be called up to help fight the Omicron wave.
The ward will house non-Covid patients, allowing positive infections to take up greater space within the RDH.
A bed buy, in which the public system takes temporary control of a private bed, is often done for a few beds at a time by NT Health. However, buying an entire ward of beds is virtually unprecedented.
Australian Medical Association NT president Robert Parker said the decision to bed buy the entire Corella Ward showed the seriousness of the situation.
“I think it reflects the pressure on the health system in the current Omicron wave,” Dr Parker said.
“It makes sense that they’ve done that. Obviously the hospital is under very significant pressure.”
Dr Parker said the health system was “coping but under stress”, with health officials holding frequent meetings to strategise how the RDH could best allocate resources.
He said emergency patients, both Covid and for unrelated medical incidents, were being seen by doctors.
But Dr Parker warned elective surgeries were being constantly delayed.
When asked how much the bed buy of the Corella Ward was costing, Health Minister Natasha Fyles said she would “seek advice”.
NT Health did not provide a figure to the NT News by deadline. Ms Fyles said the decision to take over the Corella Ward had been taken as part of a national agreement between public health departments and the private hospital sector.
“We haven’t needed it over the last 20 months, but that has been stepped up, so I would like to thank the team at the Darwin Private Hospital.”
EXCLUSIVE: NT Health to use Darwin Private Hospital to manage Covid surge
A WARD at the Darwin Private Hospital has been purchased by NT Health to help manage the massive influx of Covid-19 patients in the Top End.
Health Minister Natasha Fyles said late on Tuesday that health authorities had activated an agreement between the Royal Darwin Hospital and the Darwin Private Hospital.
It followed Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Tuesday activating a private hospital Covid-19 plan nationwide, calling up to 57,000 nurses in the private sector to help fight the Omicron wave.
“The states and territories will, where necessary, work directly with the staff and with the hospitals themselves … it will be up to the states and territories to activate those,” Mr Hunt said.
“We have activated them at the Commonwealth end.”
Sources have told the NT News the Corella ward at the Darwin Private Hospital has been bought by NT Health to be used for negative patients, with room for 23 beds.
That will allow the Royal Darwin Hospital to have two wards dedicated to Covid-19, one for confirmed positive cases and one for presumptive or likely positive cases.
Level two of the Royal Darwin Hospital has now been entirely dedicated to Covid-19 patients, according to one source.
The Corella ward will be staffed by private health nurses and public health doctors.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Fyles confirmed the Darwin Private Hospital had been brought in by NT Health to help manage the surge of patients.
“An operational decision has been made to activate a Covid-19 agreement between Royal Darwin Hospital and Darwin Private Hospital to create more bed capacity in response to the evolving situation,” Ms Fyles said.
“This is consistent with the use of private health services to manage Covid in other jurisdictions.”
Ms Fyles revealed earlier on Tuesday that there were 43 patients in hospital, including one in intensive care.
There were more than 72,000 Covid-19 cases reported in Australia on Tuesday, including 625 new infections reported in the Northern Territory.
The latest surge in Covid-19 cases follows a tumultuous 12 months for the Royal Darwin Hospital, which has seen four code yellows triggered to deal with overwhelmed emergency wards.
A lack of nursing staff last year was identified as the reason behind a third of ED beds at the Palmerston Hospital being closed.
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Originally published as NT Health buys Darwin Private Hospital ward to manage Covid surge at Royal Darwin
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