RDH struggles to fill key roles

Royal Darwin Hospital is still short on nurses and doctors as Covid-19 places further pressure on Top End health services.

ROYAL Darwin Hospital is at the centre of staffing shortages as Covid-19 continues to strain the system.

The hospital is still actively recruiting for roles in psychiatry and perioperative. In addition to staffing woes the hospital has admitted non-urgent elective surgeries, known as category 2 and 3, will be done on a “case-by-case basis”.

A department spokeswoman said there was a nationwide challenge in recruiting doctors, nurses and allied health positions.

“NT Health is actively managing staffing levels across our hospitals and continue to undertake targeted recruitment to fill vacancies across our health system,” she said.

“We are working hard to fill staffing shortages in critical nursing areas including perioperative and psychiatry fields.”

She said category one elective surgeries were continuing in the Territory while category two and three surgeries were completed on a case-by-case basis depending on the level of risk and bed availability.

The severe staffing shortages in both specialities were reported by NT News in October last year, and existed prior to the current outbreak of Covid-19.

The growing Covid-19 outbreak had already affected staffing levels prompting a swift change in rules for healthcare workers who were deemed close contacts.

The spokeswoman for the department said all Territory hospitals had a Covid-19 management plan which included “surging-up bed capacity”.

The Royal Darwin Hospital RDH. Picture: Che Chorley

“Resources and staffing can be reconfigured in alignment with the plans and the specific needs of the situation,” she said.

But when the hospital came under fire last year, Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Dr John Bonning said beds could not just be increased without staff.

“It’s not just a physical space. It’s a base with staff … so more staffed beds is the number one need to deal with capacity,” he said.

Furthermore, NT Health has redeployed a number of health staff to the Covid hotline to interview confirmed cases.

“Allied health clinicians have not been cancelled however, to manage staff capacity, the scheduling of some new appointments has been delayed until the end of January.” the spokeswoman said.

Last year, the hospital called four code yellows which meant surgery and outpatient clinics were haltered as a response to increased pressure from demand.

The hospital spokeswoman said a code yellow was “not currently in place”.