Health staff at ‘breaking point’ as hospital hits 140 per cent capacity

Staff within the Territory’s health system are ‘at breaking point’ as Royal Darwin Hospital reaches 140 per cent capacity, ANMF NT secretary Cath Hatcher says.

UPDATE Wednesday: STAFF within the Territory’s health system are “at breaking point” as Royal Darwin Hospital reaches 140 per cent capacity, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT secretary Cath Hatcher says.

Speaking on Mix 104.9, Ms Hatcher said the pressure on the system was “unsustainable”, describing the situation as being “at crisis point”.

“Staff are exhausted and feeling like their job’s at risk, their registration’s at risk, they’re very dedicated workers within the health system but they are near breaking point,” she said.

“They just want to give the best care to their patients but they’re feeling compromised, they’re continuously working double shifts and regular overtime but that’s going to hit and come to a breaking point at some stage soon.”

Doctors and senior health executives discussed shutting the emergency department at the Palmerston Regional Hospital during crisis talks over staff shortages, it has been revealed

Ms Hatcher said an influx of patients from remote communities and staff being redirected to the coronavirus fight at the Centre for National Resilience was adding to the pressure on the system.

“In the beginning of the year the NT government said that it wouldn’t impact but it certainly has, they’ve had a number of — and I don’t know the actual figures — but they’ve definitely had a number of staff who have gone across to the Howard Springs facility,” she said.

“There’s also about 60 patients, non-acute, in Royal Darwin and Palmerston Regional hospitals that really need services in the community at aged care facilities, NDIS facilities.

“There’s no beds in that area, so some of those 60 patients have been occupying beds greater than 100 days in both the Palmerston and Royal Darwin hospitals so that’s impacted on beds.”

EARLIER: DOCTORS and senior health executives discussed shutting the emergency department at the Palmerston Regional Hospital during crisis talks over staff shortages.

The possibility of closing the Palmerston emergency department was among the options discussed earlier this month, according to several independent sources familiar with the meeting.

Another option raised was to significantly scale back emergency department services at the hospital, with just a handful of beds to be made available for walk-in patients, and ambulances directed to go straight to Royal Darwin Hospital.

It was agreed to keep the Palmerston emergency department operating in the short term, with the situation to be reassessed by the end of this month.

But hospital staff have serious concerns about the shortage of nurses and doctors, who have been spread across two hospitals since the Palmerston Regional Hospital opened in August 2018.

Staff who had been seconded to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre have returned to the hospital system to try to ease the burden.

The staffing crisis has worsened since the Northern Territory Government took over the management of the Howard Springs quarantine facility earlier this year.

The move required the Government to recruit 400 staff, with many hospital workers moving to the quarantine facility.

A number of ambulances shown backed up at Royal Darwin Hospital in a practice known as ‘ramping’. Picture: Supplied

Sky News sent detailed questions to the Northern Territory’s Health Department about the meeting and any plans to close or reduce services at the Palmerston Regional Hospital.

The department did not directly answer those questions, but in a statement said it was “working on projects to improve the patient journey across the Territory from admission to discharge”.

“There continues to be an increase in demand for health services across the Northern Territory, in addition to the COVID-19 public health response we continue to lead,” it said.

“We acknowledge the high demand for health services is not sustainable in the long-term, and are working to improve our capacity so we can continue to provide high quality care to all Territorians.”

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said last week the Government had “contingency plans” to deal with staff shortages at Top End hospitals, particularly in the event of a Covid-19 outbreak in the NT.

Hospital staff have serious concerns about the shortage of nurses and doctors, who have been spread across two hospitals since the Palmerston Regional Hospital opened in August 2018.

She did not directly answer subsequent questions about whether this plan included the possible closure of scaling back of the PRH emergency department.

“All Territory hospitals have Covid-19 management plans which include reconfiguring parts of the hospital as required to increase bed capacity and, if needed, reducing non-urgent services to free up additional staff,” she said.

“Resources and staffing would be reconfigured in alignment with the plans and the specific situation at hand.”

Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation NT president Thomas Fowles said the union was concerned over a lack of staff across the hospital system.

“Right now the current situation is hurting patients and hurting staff and the Territory community deserves better,” Dr Fowles said.

Opposition health spokesman Bill Yan said the staffing issues were a huge concern.

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“I’d hate to see what would happen if we had a serious outbreak of Delta here in the Territory,” he said.

“We’ve got our hospitals already under immense pressure.

“If we had a Delta outbreak and of course then they get hit with all those patients coming in a requiring critical care from a Delta variant outbreak, how are we going to cope?”

Originally published as Health staff at ‘breaking point’ as hospital hits 140 per cent capacity