160 Goulburn Valley Health workers furloughed as ‘code brown’ called across state

Almost 200 GV Health workers are off work because of Covid as a ‘code brown’ is called to deal with staff shortages and high demand.

GV Health Chief Executive Matt Sharp. Photo: Sarah Matray

Up to 8 per cent of staff at Goulburn Valley Health were off work as ‘code brown’ emergency measures were announced to deal with a lack of staff and high Covid demand.

Chief Executive Matt Sharp said the ‘code brown’ declared by the Victorian Government on Tuesday morning was, for GV Health, a logical extension of the reduction in “less essential services” already begun.

“Right throughout the pandemic, we’ve been pretty close at different periods to activating a code brown; in fact we did get to the point of activating a similar emergency response when we had the outbreak in Shepparton last year in September,” he said.

“Some of those things that people will be familiar with of course is a reduction in elective surgery, to at the moment only doing category one elective surgery; a similar process in terms of our specialist clinic appointments, bringing that right back to emergency clinic appointments only; the same, for example, in our dental services and also in some of our other community health and ambulatory services.

“In some of our other areas where we have staff who are fulfilling roles such as education and teaching or supervising on additional shifts, we’ve re-deployed those people into direct clinical delivery roles, and we’ve also taken the opportunity to close some parts of our other education services, quality services in terms of some of the analysis and the reports we would do under normal circumstances.

“We’ve been progressively deploying people into more critical areas such as our emergency department, our operating theatre, our critical care unit … and of course to our wards.”

He said rising Covid case numbers had had a “consequential impact” on the local health sector: 160 GV Health staff - 7 to 8 per cent of the total workforce - were off work because of Covid, he said, compared with 40 to 50 at the same time last week.

He added there were about 160 full-time jobs for which the health service was unable to recruit.

“The code brown really, I think for GV Health today, we were probably at that threshold point anyway, just based on the increasing number of staff that have been furloughed in the last 24 hours,” Mr Sharp said.

“It’s a decision I think is welcome for us in terms of where we’re at as a health service and probably our part of the state and how we operate within the Victorian system.”

He said staff were working more shifts, longer hours, and were coming back from leave to keep crucial departments running.

“We’ve had challenges constantly in our emergency department in terms of keeping the rosters filled, and that’s probably where we’ve seen the highest number of people working additional hours, and the like,” Mr Sharp said.

“There’s a balance here too because people are working long hours, they’re tired, and it’s not just the last few weeks, we’ve almost been at it for around-about two years or more now.

“We’re conscious of the fact that we do want our staff to have a break, but the flip side is we’ve got to of course maintain those essential services: it’s a constant juggle.”

Government guidelines say ‘code browns’ are used to “plan, prepare, respond, and recover from an external emergency” and are called by a health organisation “when additional capability and capacity needs to be mobilised … to receive an influx of patients”.

They say that each health service is required to have its own ‘code brown’ plan and is expected to tell the Department of Health when the relevant triggers are reached, however, the department can request that health services trigger their plans if a major threat to the health system becomes known.

As well as metropolitan Melbourne, the code announced on Tuesday will apply to Barwon Health, Grampians Health, Bendigo Health, Goulburn Valley Health, Albury Wodonga Health, and Latrobe Regional Hospital, where changes will need to be put in place by midday on Wednesday.

Deputy Premier James Merlino said a “formal emergency management structure” was needed because of workforce shortages and the “vast number of coronavirus patients requiring hospitalisation, and ongoing treatment for patients with urgent and emergency needs”.

Alterations at hospitals may include doing some medical work outside, removing patients from ambulances faster, or shifting staff to areas of higher priority.

The code is expected to last four to six weeks.