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Speaker 1: We certainly know that staffing and bed shortages in territory

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Speaker 1: hospitals are reportedly being put under increasing strain as influenza

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Speaker 1: cases rise to record levels and people from remote communities

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Speaker 1: require being flown in to hospitals of course for treatment.

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Speaker 2: Now, what is required or what is happening?

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Speaker 1: I guess so you'd have to say, along with hospitals

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Speaker 1: already being stretched due to the pandemic, but also hearing

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Speaker 1: stories about people having to be sort of housed in

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Speaker 1: the corridors, I guess you'd say, is something that is

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Speaker 1: apparently happening right now. And joining me on the line

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Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about this is the

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Speaker 1: NT chair of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, Stephen Gorley.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Stephen, good morning, Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Stephen.

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Speaker 1: We know that there certainly has been a large volume

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Speaker 1: of flu cases in the territory.

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Speaker 2: More than three thousand is what.

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Speaker 1: Is being reported so far this year, up from much

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Speaker 1: lower mbers around the eighteen hundred mark back in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: What kind of pressure is this putting on our hospital system?

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Speaker 3: Yes, certainly we have been quite a large increase in

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Speaker 3: influenza cases, particularly over COVID, when everyone was practicing good

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Speaker 3: hygiene and we're mostly sort of socially isolating, that's had

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Speaker 3: a big impact on reducing flue. But now those restrictions

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Speaker 3: of ease, we're seeing quite a.

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Speaker 4: Big surge and flue.

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Speaker 3: We are seeing a lot of flues coming through the

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Speaker 3: hospital at the moment, but it's not justly. We're also

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Speaker 3: seeing COVID and a lot of other conditions that were

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Speaker 3: people maybe weren't looking after themselves or accessing healthcare system

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Speaker 3: as much as they should have during the COVID years.

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Speaker 4: So it's a mixture of a lot of things.

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Speaker 3: But yes, we are certainly seeing increasing demands for services.

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Speaker 1: And what kind of pressure is that influx putting on

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Speaker 1: the health system in terms of, you know, enough beds,

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Speaker 1: Have we got enough beds, have we got enough staff?

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Speaker 1: Particularly in those emergency wards and other parts of the hospitals.

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Speaker 3: UH, starting is a real challenge. There's a you know,

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Speaker 3: it's not just in the territory, it's across the world. Actually,

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Speaker 3: there's a worldwide shortage of nursing stuff in particular, but

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Speaker 3: certainly in Australia, most emergency departments are struggling and starting.

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Speaker 3: The pandemic has been hired for everybody, including the frontline

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Speaker 3: healthcare workers.

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Speaker 4: It's been a long two and a big years.

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Speaker 3: A lot of people have not taken their holidays, and

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Speaker 3: people are getting tired of just.

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Speaker 4: Needing that break.

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Speaker 3: And now that we've come out of the COVID pandemic

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Speaker 3: and been hit by effectively another pandemic with the influenza,

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Speaker 3: it's all been a bit rough. So so yees, staring

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Speaker 3: starting is a challenge, and needing the demand is also

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Speaker 3: is there. But it's important just to say we are

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Speaker 3: managing if you're if you're very unwell or critically injured,

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Speaker 3: we are. We are seeing all those people in a

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Speaker 3: timing fashion.

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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I think it's well worth pointing out

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Speaker 1: that the staff right across all of our hospitals, whether

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Speaker 1: it be Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, the other hospitals like Catherine.

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Speaker 1: I know that the staff do a tremendous job caring

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Speaker 1: for patients, no matter how busy they are. But what

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Speaker 1: does happen when a person comes in needing a bed

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Speaker 1: and there's not physically a bed to put them in

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Speaker 1: or staff able to sort of to manage all of

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Speaker 1: the patients coming in.

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Speaker 3: We have a wealth thought out and wealth we plan

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Speaker 3: for this eventuality and sometimes we need to go into it.

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Speaker 3: There are there are things like code yellows that can

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Speaker 3: get declared that generally what we do is we make

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Speaker 3: sure all of it are being used the foolishncy effectively.

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Speaker 4: So we make sure the inpatient teams.

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Speaker 3: Go around and anyone that doesn't necessarily need to be

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Speaker 3: either as completed their care and get discharged so we

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Speaker 3: can free up in space and the patient area and

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Speaker 3: we bring up extra bed We do sometimes need to

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Speaker 3: put people in carridors, which is le's an ideal, but

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Speaker 3: it's where we flow to next.

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Speaker 2: And is that having to happen at the moment.

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Speaker 3: Intimately in our springs, yes, but certainly across the healthcare

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Speaker 3: system yes, most CDs have people in carridors now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it really just demonstrates how busy everybody

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Speaker 1: is at the moment. When you when you do look

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Speaker 1: at the emergency departments in our major hospitals at the moment,

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Speaker 1: how are things going?

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Speaker 3: Steven again right across the system, all emergency departments for

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Speaker 3: Australia under feeling the strain and under pressure. But again,

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Speaker 3: if you are really unwell or or critically injured, we

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Speaker 3: will see you immediately. It's really just what we are

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Speaker 3: seeing is longer waiting time. So when you turn up

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Speaker 3: to an emergency department, you get seen in order priority,

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Speaker 3: and that is really to say, how secure. If you're

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Speaker 3: not needing a bed or you're not needing to be

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Speaker 3: seen emergently, you'll have to wait.

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Speaker 4: And unfortunately some.

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Speaker 3: Of those wedding times are beginning to blow out a

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Speaker 3: little bit. But I'd like to reassure people just to

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Speaker 3: bear with us, please, you know, we are doing our

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Speaker 3: absolute best to get to and we will get to eventually.

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Speaker 4: It just me takes a little bit longer than what

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Speaker 4: we would usually do.

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Speaker 2: Is there anything that can be done?

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, you know, like you said, we are

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Speaker 1: experiencing those staffing shortages right across the board in hospitals

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Speaker 1: right around Australia. But is there different things that could

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Speaker 1: be happening right now, you know, to try and desist

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Speaker 1: in this space.

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Speaker 4: It's a really good question.

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Speaker 3: Workforce strategies I think need to be put right at

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Speaker 3: the top of the gender and I think we do

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Speaker 3: need to get all the seats and territories down the

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Speaker 3: Commonwealth together and start looking at the whole system reform.

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Speaker 3: What we're doing now is not working and it needs

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Speaker 3: wholesale review and reform. We not only need sort of

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Speaker 3: recruitment strategies, but retention as well. So when you lose

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Speaker 3: in your staff, it takes twenty years to train someone

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Speaker 3: at a curt level, so it's quite a big impact

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Speaker 3: on the whole system. So how do we keep our staff,

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Speaker 3: particularly in the territory, how do we.

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Speaker 4: Recruit more people to it.

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Speaker 3: These are questions that are not for me to answer

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Speaker 3: at this point of time, but we certainly come to college.

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Speaker 4: The Australian College, from research and from our.

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Speaker 3: Point of view, we'd be happy to be involved in

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Speaker 3: those discussions and we certainly support any common sense or

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Speaker 3: effective needs to do that.

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Speaker 1: Oh, we had heard on the show just last week

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Speaker 1: and we know that that parliamentary estimates were happening last

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Speaker 1: week and Bill Yeh, the Shadow Health Minister, had said

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Speaker 1: that around fourteen hundred staff had been lost from the

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Speaker 1: health system in the Northern Territory, and we know that

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Speaker 1: that was sort of across the board, not just in

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Speaker 1: one location, but across the board when you talk about

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Speaker 1: health staff from our major hospitals as I understand it,

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Speaker 1: and also from the Howard Springs facility.

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Speaker 2: But I mean that loss of.

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Speaker 1: Staff over a year long period must have had a

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Speaker 1: big impact.

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Speaker 3: It has had an impact, but starting numbers so difficult

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Speaker 3: in the territory.

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Speaker 4: The territory traditionally it has been quite.

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Speaker 3: A fluid workforce. People are sort of moving in and

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Speaker 3: out of the territory all the time. Part of the

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Speaker 3: one of the reasons why I think we're sort of

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Speaker 3: seeing a loss at the moment is that people are

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Speaker 3: just very tired from the pandemic, not taking their leaves

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Speaker 3: and have had quite a lot of leaves build up

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Speaker 3: and it's time for people to just take a break.

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Speaker 3: So how many of them come back?

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Speaker 4: I think that's the biggest question.

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Speaker 3: So, yes, we have lost people, but I'm sure a

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Speaker 3: lot of them just from holiday and we'll come back

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Speaker 3: to the system.

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Speaker 1: It must be a big stress though on our you know,

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Speaker 1: on our hospital and health stuff. I mean, at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, everybody that works in those jobs

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Speaker 1: is incredibly caring. I think you'd have to say, by nature,

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Speaker 1: I don't think that you become a doctor or a nurse,

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Speaker 1: a surgeon, you know, anybody at the hospital that works

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Speaker 1: there without caring for others. So it must become quite stressful,

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Speaker 1: as you know, as you are juggling everything and as

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Speaker 1: those demands become greater.

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Speaker 4: Well it is it is very stressful.

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Speaker 3: And as to the workforce strength a bit, those of

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Speaker 3: us we remain are taking up that slack and it

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Speaker 3: is tough. But like I said, if we do care

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Speaker 3: for our patients, and if you are really unwell or injured,

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Speaker 3: we will certainly look at look after as quickly as possible.

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Speaker 3: But if you are not, you may have to wait

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Speaker 3: a bit longer than what we would like you to

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Speaker 3: And it's not something we're happy with. It's just that's

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Speaker 3: the reality at the moment. I would like to just

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Speaker 3: throw in, Yeah, sure you are a thing if you

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Speaker 3: are a little bit unsure about whether to go to

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Speaker 3: the emergency department. We are trying to keep emergency departments

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Speaker 3: for emergencies, and we realize that it's sometimes very hard.

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Speaker 4: To get into see your GP.

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Speaker 3: If you can't make that and you're not sure whether

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Speaker 3: it become there is a free service health direct which

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Speaker 3: you can finally get advice from one of the senior

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Speaker 3: nurses there and that's one eight hundred zero double two,

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Speaker 3: triple too, and we'd encourage people to take make use

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Speaker 3: of that service if you're not.

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Speaker 1: Sure, absolutely good advice I reckon doctor Stephen Gooley. We

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so very

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Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us.

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Speaker 4: Thank you, good time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,