Eastern Health’s Angliss, Box Hill, Maroondah Hospitals ED’s busy

Three hospitals in Melbourne's east have experienced “very high demand” in emergency, prompting staff to issue a plea.

Eastern Health emergency departments have experienced a surge in demand. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

Eastern Health is asking the community to keep the emergency department for emergencies, after a surge in patients.

The organisation, which operates the Angliss, Box Hill and Maroondah hospitals in Melbourne’s east, took to social media Tuesday night to warn the hospitals’ emergency departments were very busy and those with non-urgent conditions should expect a long wait.

“Please be aware, our three Emergency Departments … are currently experiencing very high demand,” the post read.

“Please keep the Emergency Department for emergencies.

“People with non-urgent, non-life threatening conditions should expect long waits.”

Meanwhile patient services at Eastern Health are no longer being impacted by IT issues after a March 16 cyber attack, with a backlog of appointments now being managed.

The cyber attack saw surgeries delayed and staff reverted to using pen and paper for some patient management.

An Eastern Health spokesperson said throughout the system outage, its emergency departments continued to run as normal, as did many other services, including maternity and mental health clinics.

The planned rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine was also not affected by the cyber incident.

“We sincerely thank our staff, patients, their families and the broader community for the patience and understanding during such a challenging period,” the spokesperson said.