Regional Victorian hospitals placed under code yellow as healthcare crisis wreaks havoc

The health crisis has seen regional hospitals forced to adopt emergency measures never seen before. See if your area is affected.

Four regional Victorian hospitals struggling to meet demand have been forced to adopt emergency measures as crippling shortages fuel a worsening health crisis.

On Thursday, Bass Coast, Goulburn Valley, West Gippsland and North East Wangaratta health services were operating under code yellow provisions – signalling an internal emergency – as they could not cope with demand.

The Herald Sun can reveal at least nine Victorian rural and regional hospitals have been placed under code yellow – which allows them to close or limit services – in recent months.

West Gippsland Healthcare chief executive Dan Weeks said it was the most pressure the hospital “had ever been under”.

Ballarat Base Hospital called a Code Yellow. Picture: Chloe Smith.

Rural Doctors Association of Victoria president Rob Phair said unprecedented demand, workforce shortages and long-term systemic issues was crippling hospitals.

“There’s been a lot of code yellows – everywhere from Mildura to Ballarat to Albury Wodonga – I think most hospitals have had them at one point,” Dr Phair said. “I can’t remember anything like this.

“It’s basically take all those factors and add them all together and almost every section is under increased strain at the moment.”

Senior sources say they are being crippled by the same issues plaguing major Melbourne hospitals, but often with far more severe immediate impacts.

With fewer staff, regional health services had less flexibility to cover gaps, giving them little choice but to increasingly close areas of their hospitals, sources said.

West Gippsland Hospital’s code yellow is expected to continue for several weeks.

Warragul’s West Gippsland Hospital called a code yellow on May 25 which is expected to continue for several weeks, while similar emergency footings have been adopted in;

*Wonthaggi Hospital, which has 16 beds closed after calling a code yellow on May 3;

*Northeast Wangaratta, which entered a code yellow this week;

*Goulburn Valley Health remains under a code yellow;

*Mildura Base Hospital was under a code yellow from May 18 until May 19;

*Omeo District Health operated under a code yellow in the week of May 3;

*Ballarat Base Hospital called a code yellow on April 21, which is now resolved;

*Albury-Wodonga Health was under code yellow from March 29 to April 13;

*Warrnambool Base Hospital called a code yellow in recent months.

While a code yellow can be called for any internal emergency — such as a power outage — the Herald Sun understands the recent regional have centred on demand issues.

Other hospitals who have closed services include Portland District Hospital, with women forced to travel an hour to the next nearest hospital to give birth.

Their birth suite was shut on March 15 due to national midwife shortage and will remain closed until September.

A Health Department spokeswoman said: “It’s no secret the pandemic has led to healthcare workforce shortages around the world.”

Ambulance ramping issues have impacted Melbourne hospitals.

But a regional healthcare source told the Herald Sun staffing was on a “knife’s edge” before Covid emerged, as emergency department presentations increased by almost 20 per cent since 2013 but funding did not allow for any expansion.

Dr Phair said Covid-fulled surgery backlogs, deferred healthcare, and burnt out healthcare workers were impacting hospitals, however long-term systemic failures including GPs shortages and a reliance on overseas trained doctors were the basis of the crisis.

“It (Covid) is kind of been used as a bit of a Get Out of Jail free card, and that’s the problem,” he said.

“It has probably just highlighted the cracks that were already there.”

While Bairnsdale Regional Health Service was yet to call a code yellow, a spokesman said staffing shortfalls were a “regular challenge”.

“It’s important to note that staffing regional hospitals … to serve a growing population was already a challenge before Covid,” he said.

It comes after a 72-year-old man had a fatal cardiac arrest in the Bairnsdale emergency department bathroom in April, after waiting in an ambulance for more than three hours.

Worker shortages are adding to the problems experienced across the hospitals.

Bass Coast Health has also been crippled by Covid, influenza and gastro, losing up to 60 staff a day while urgent emergency department presentations have risen by more than 40 per cent in two years.

Chief executive Jan Child said it was “probably the most difficult time” in modern healthcare.

“I sometimes watch social media and see all the armchair critics who wouldn’t last a day in the shoes of our brilliant staff,” she said.

When the code yellow was first issued in early May, she said they were operating at a “frenetic and heightened pace” and knew demand would continue to rise.

“While we understand most of the community is now over Covid and have moved on, we are still in the grip of Covid,” she said.

In a video standing in front of his hospital after it was forced to call a code yellow, Mildura Base Hospital chief executive Terry Welch warned it was “out of capacity”.

“I cannot be more serious in the message, we need to do everything we can to take the pressure of this emergency department,” he said.

West Gippsland Healthcare Dan Weeks said their code yellow was primarily driven by staffing shortages linked to Covid, influenza and other seasonal viruses.

“It’s been absolutely tough.”

He said aged care residents were in lockdown (visitors are permitted in exceptional circumstances) and some hospital beds closed, but hoped they wouldn’t need to cut back on elective surgery.

Albury Wodonga Health interim chief executive Janet Chapman told the Herald Sun they hadn’t re-enacted a code yellow status since April but some measures were still in place and they were averaging 1300 emergency department presentations each week.

“A number of initiatives instigated during the Code Yellow remain in place to assist us to respond to ongoing high demand for our services,” she said.

Victorian Healthcare Association chief executive officer Tom Symondson said rural and regional hospitals were under extreme pressure fuelled by their first widespread Covid-19 and flu infections among their staff and communities.

“This comes on top of a severe shortage of healthcare workers in regional Victoria – a problem exacerbated by the pandemic and associated border closures,” Mr Symondson said.

“It is much harder to find back up staff in rural and regional areas compared to Melbourne. “This is undoubtedly contributing to the trend of services calling Code Yellows.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the Andrews government had to act immediately.

“Rolling Code Yellow’s across the state demonstrate the extent and breadth of Victoria’s health crisis under Daniel Andrews. It’s a crisis that’s going from bad to worse and putting more Victorians lives at risk”

A Health Department spokesman said the government was “investing billions into the long-term recovery of our health system and actively recruiting to fill gaps in the short-term – rolling out projects to help keep staff in the workforce across Victoria”.

More than 440 international healthcare workers have already touched down in Victoria since August last year to help boost our frontline workforce. Up to 7,000 healthcare workers, including 5,000 nurses, will also be trained and hired under our $12 billion Pandemic Repair Plan.