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Speaker 1: We learned overnight that a Code yellow has been declared

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Speaker 1: yet again at Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospitals due to

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Speaker 1: a significant spike in patients needing acute care and admission.

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Speaker 1: The internal emergency has been declared to help ease the

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Speaker 1: pressure on the system, with actions being taken to manage

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Speaker 1: capacity while ensuring patience, safety and high quality care. Joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now is the AMA, the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Australian Medical Association's President, Doctor Robert Parker. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you, doctor Parker. Morning Katie, Doctor Parker. I'm

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Speaker 1: assuming that it is a very similar story to all

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Speaker 1: of the recent Code yellows, where our poor old emergency

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Speaker 1: department is absolutely under stress and some of those beds

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Speaker 1: being taken up because we don't have aged care spaces well.

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Speaker 2: Again, unfortunately winter down south equals probably increased numbers of

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Speaker 2: people sitting up with the flu in the North. It's

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Speaker 2: just one of those spikes and I'm not sure if

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Speaker 2: flu is the cause. I'm actually away from here on

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Speaker 2: the Gold Coast are the national conference, but it's just

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Speaker 2: one of the things that hospitals have to cope with.

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Speaker 2: Whether there will be to the peaks and troughs of activity.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes it will be infectious disease, other times it will

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Speaker 2: be mental health, other times it will be you know,

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Speaker 2: and other issues that there's respiratory problems following too much

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Speaker 2: smoke around. So all of those issues impact on NED

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Speaker 2: and on hospital activity. And again all the usual things

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Speaker 2: such as the twenty percent of beds that occupy the

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Speaker 2: people who should be in HP or other support of

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Speaker 2: accommodation or you know, those are the issues all the

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Speaker 2: to the to the code.

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Speaker 1: Is this quite concerning though, given the fact we're about

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Speaker 1: to head into a long weekend. I mean it's going

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Speaker 1: to be a busy, busy weekend, no doubt, and we

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Speaker 1: just we seem to just be unable to really get

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Speaker 1: on top of this longer term.

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Speaker 2: Well, Katie, I think we've been talking about this for

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Speaker 2: a few years. I mean, as we pointed out that,

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Speaker 2: you know, there's just the health system and the territory

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Speaker 2: has been under funded by both sides of politics, so

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Speaker 2: it's not to put the plane on any particular one

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Speaker 2: side for many years. And I mean this is the

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Speaker 2: end result of a chronic underfunding of a health system

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Speaker 2: and then the increased sort of pressure on that system

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Speaker 2: from an aging and increasingly unwell population. You know. So

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Speaker 2: it's been many years in the making and it's very

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Speaker 2: difficult to suddenly sort of repair it. And that's the circumstance.

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Speaker 1: How tough is it right now for our hospitals, particularly

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Speaker 1: those emergency departments.

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Speaker 2: It was very busy. They're incredibly busy and they had

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Speaker 2: to do the best they can. And I've always said,

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Speaker 2: you know, territories will get very good quality care because

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Speaker 2: you know, the heroes of the health system doctors, nurses, physiosots, cleaners, cooks,

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Speaker 2: all sort of keep the system going to provide the

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Speaker 2: best care. But you know, the health system just has

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Speaker 2: to real reorganize its priority, you know, and it usually

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Speaker 2: effects electro surgical just unfortunately.

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Speaker 1: What is your message this morning, Dr Parker, Well, for

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Speaker 1: both sides of the parliament here in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: when it comes to you to our health system, particularly

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Speaker 1: as we head into an election.

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Speaker 2: Well, again I gather that Marco, the currency or the

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Speaker 2: health departments some very good work in trying to attract

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Speaker 2: extra funding from the Commonwealth for the anti health system

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Speaker 2: and the current sort of Commonwealth state funding agreements are

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Speaker 2: so good on Marco for working on that, and again

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Speaker 2: I think again whichever side, they've always got to look

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Speaker 2: at dividing the pie in a certain way. But a

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Speaker 2: more serious issue at the moment is the availability of

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Speaker 2: into that is fluid. It's a national situation where we

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Speaker 2: get apparently a lot of our ivy fluids from overseas

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Speaker 2: and there's a significant shortage nationwide at the moment. Well up, Well, now,

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Speaker 2: we didn't realize that most of our ivy fluids to

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Speaker 2: produce overseas and there are various factors. Now I'm pinging

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Speaker 2: on that supply. Not qua sure what the exact issues are,

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Speaker 2: but it's a national situation and they go yesterday there

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Speaker 2: was a national meeting to try and sort out what

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Speaker 2: states I've got fluids. Don't know how they're sorting up

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Speaker 2: the issues. My understanding at the moment is a territory

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Speaker 2: well stopped. But the OM is working with their health

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Speaker 2: departments to make sure that the fluids are closely guarded

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Speaker 2: and managed so that they're not wasted in they way

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Speaker 2: that you know, those people in meat care would over

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Speaker 2: the fluids get pick that they need.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what could it mean, though, doctor Parker, if

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Speaker 1: we wind up in a situation where we don't have enough.

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Speaker 2: Well, again, it's usually affects surgery because again IVY fluids

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Speaker 2: are commonly used in elective surgery, so it'll probably affect

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Speaker 2: elective surgery where IVY fluids are mostly sort of kept

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Speaker 2: for acute situations such as trauma or other sort of issues.

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Speaker 2: It possibly sounds a bit more serious than it is,

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Speaker 2: and I'm as sure that the at least in the

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Speaker 2: public system, that the you know, that the fund that

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Speaker 2: the fluids are being closely monitored and safeguarded. So I'm

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Speaker 2: hoping we'll get through this. I mean, there is apparently

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Speaker 2: local production fluids has been ramped up. Certainly Exmission of

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Speaker 2: the AMA is keeping a very close eye on and

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Speaker 2: is working with the Health Apartment who make sure the

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Speaker 2: territory ends the health of territories is propligated.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, we might try and we'll see how things go.

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Speaker 1: But we may need to catch up with you again

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Speaker 1: next week, you know, depending on how that progresses, just

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Speaker 1: to get a bit of an update. Doctor Robert Parker.

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Speaker 1: Always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for having

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Speaker 1: a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Good to talk Katie. Thank you