Health minister defends fourth Code Yellow at Royal Darwin as hospital pushed to capacity
Health Minister Natasha Fyles has resisted pressure to resign over the fourth Code Yellow at the Royal Darwin Hospital in a year.
Northern Territory
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UPDATED: HEALTH Minister Natasha Fyles has resisted pressure to resign over the fourth Code Yellow at the Royal Darwin Hospital in a year.
Ms Fyles also denied any plans to reduce the scope of the Palmerston Regional Hospital’s emergency department to help alleviate the struggling RDH.
“It is an important aspect of health in the top end and we won’t be closing the Palmerston Regional Hospital ED department,” she said.
Ms Fyles said hospital systems across the country, not just in the NT, were struggling with demand because of a shortage of healthcare workers from overseas.
“We are working, not only on short term solutions, but on longer term solutions to provide capacity within our acute hospital system,” she said.
Ms Fyles also urged Territorians to get vaccinated, saying the hospital system will struggle to cope with an influx of Covid-19 patients if inoculation rates aren’t higher.
EARLIER: THE Opposition have called for NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles to resign after the Royal Darwin Hospital’s fourth Code Yellow in a year.
Three of the declarations were made in the past two months, amid reports of a deteriorating situation inside the emergency department of the facility.
The situation has become so bad that plans have been made to reallocate resources away from the Palmerston Hospital to Royal Darwin.
Speaking after the declaration was made on Wednesday, Opposition Health spokesman Bill Yan called for Ms Fyles to take accountability for the crisis and resign.
“This is a fourth code yellow we’ve seen this year,” Mr Yan said.
“This is not sustainable for Territorians.”
Last week the government was repeatedly questioned by the opposition in parliament about the state of the NT’s Health system.
But the government, including Ms Fyles, simply dismissed questions by accusing the CLP of being anti-vax.
EARLIER: A CODE Yellow has been declared at the Royal Darwin Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
The declaration means category two and three elective surgeries are postponed to conserve capacity.
It’s the fourth time such a drastic measure has been taken in a year, with the last declaration being made three weeks ago.
“A Code Yellow enacts a number of practices to allow the hospital to closely manage the peak until pressures ease,” a statement from NT Health said.
“Patient safety is a priority and the dedicated staff at RDH work hard to ensure Territorians continue to receive the best patient centred care possible in these periods of high demand.”
“We urge people who have non-emergency health needs to see their GP as soon as they become sick to try to avoid becoming acutely unwell and needing hospital attendance.”
Code Yellows are declared when emergency rooms are overcrowded.
The declaration comes amid growing concern about the state of the Northern Territory’s healthcare system.
The NT News has previously reported that paramedics and emergency department doctors and nurses have been pushed to the brink by overwhelming demand and a lack of resources.
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