NT spends more than $2.6 million transferring patients from Palmerston Hospital to RDH

Greater Darwin’s “two campus” healthcare system is costing the NT a stunning amount of money, while overworked medical workers rack up overtime.

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THE Top End Health Service is spending more than $2.6 million every year ferrying patients between the Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital.

Overworked doctors and nurses also racked up $4.38 million in overtime to deal with the sheer number of patients, including one code yellow declared at the RDH in February.

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In NT Estimates on Wednesday, Top End Health Service acting chief operating officer Allison Grierson said between five and 15 patients “easily” could be transferred from Palmerston to RDH in a single day.

But Health Minister Natasha Fyles defended the practice of shipping patients between the two facilities, saying they were “one campus” that were naturally going to share resources.

Generic imagery of St Johns Ambulance, Northern Territory. Picture: Che Chorley

It comes after the NT News reported St Johns Ambulance crews were taking patients to Palmerston Hospital in the event of ramping at the RDH, before being transferred back if they needed specialist treatment.

When pressed by opposition health spokesman Bill Yan on the code yellow declared in February, Ms Grierson said the RDH had “surge capacity” which was used daily to handle sudden increases in demand.

“We would have opened all that surge capacity (for the code yellow),” Ms Grierson said.

Healthcare workers at the RDH and Palmerston Hospital were paid $4.38 million in overtime last year, against a payroll of nearly $119 million.

It was also revealed there had been a “sustained increase” in the number of mental health patients presenting to the Royal Darwin Hospital, with an average of 3.3 people waiting for a mental health bed every day.

Ms Fyles also defended stunning revelations in recent weeks that some mental health patients had been administered massive amounts of sedatives when no beds were available.

She said sedating a patient was a “clinical” decision made by medical professionals.

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