St John of God Geelong ED closing overnight in January
St John of God Geelong Hospital will slash its emergency department hours, when visitors are expected to descend on the region.
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St John of God Geelong Hospital will slash its emergency department hours in January, when visitors are expected to descend on the region.
Hospital chief executive Stephen Roberts said in response to a shortfall of experienced emergency physicians, it had decided to temporarily pause the overnight opening hours of its emergency department for a four week period.
The hours of the private hospital’s emergency department – usually open 24/7 – will be reduced to 7am to 10pm from January 2 to 29.
“Workforce challenges have and continue to impact all health services including our own,” Mr Roberts said.
“We appreciate this may cause some level of inconvenience, however, ensuring we have a strong team in place to best provide a safe and sustainable high quality care is our priority.
“This has not happened in the past and we are working with significant focus to ensure it is not repeated.
“Our 24 hour service is planned to resume on Monday 30th January 2023.”
Barwon Health emergency department director Belinda Hibble said Geelong hospital’s ED would continue to operate 24 hours a day for people who required emergency medical care.
“Barwon Health, like all healthcare services across the state, has been impacted by workforce shortages,” she said.
“We prioritise care for patients who require emergency care and at times this may require people with non-urgent conditions to wait longer for their care.”
The 90th percentile wait time – the amount of time in which 90 per cent of all patients presenting to the emergency department were seen by a nurse or doctor – at Geelong hospital rose from 189 minutes to 201 between the June and September quarters, Victorian Agency for Health Information figures showed.
Dr Hibble said the Barwon Health North Urgent Care Centre was also available for minor injuries and illnesses, Friday to Monday 8am to 10pm and Tuesday to Thursday 2pm to 10pm.
The region’s second private hospital, Epworth Geelong in Waurn Ponds, has a 24/7 emergency department.
Epworth Geelong executive general manager Leonie Lloyd said emergency department hours had been expanded in March.
“Epworth Geelong increased the Emergency Department’s hours from 16 hours to 24 hours a day, supported by an expansion of our Intensive Care Unit, operating theatre capacity, cardiac and neurosurgery services this year,” she said.
“In our usual preparation for the upcoming holiday season, Epworth Geelong has rostered extra staff to cope with an increase in patients, as the population in Geelong and the Surf Coast increases.”
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