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Speaker 1: We are due to catch up any moment now with

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Speaker 1: the AMA, the Australian Medical Association in relation to this

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Speaker 1: outage or to the concerns that we've had around the hospital. Basically,

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Speaker 1: it was being reported that the loss of Telstra four

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Speaker 1: G connectivity was having a major impact on Darwin's Royal

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Speaker 1: Darwin Hospital and the other facilities around there, with the

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Speaker 1: tel co conducting planned maintenance in the area. Now, according

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Speaker 1: to Telstra's website, the four G mobile outages in the

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Speaker 1: area are due to works to those works and are

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Speaker 1: not due to be restored until seven pm on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: November nine. It is understood that it's impact in communications

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Speaker 1: between medical staff and patient care. That is, despite nt

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Speaker 1: Health issuing a statement saying that there's been no impact

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Speaker 1: to operations or to service delivery at Royal Darwin Hospital,

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Speaker 1: now they claim that they're has, however, been some disruption

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Speaker 1: to the mobile phone service across the hospital network. Now,

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Speaker 1: Royal Darwin Hospital has business continuity plants to ensure operations

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Speaker 1: can continue in the case of the outach. That is

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Speaker 1: what the department has told us. Now joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line to shed some more light on this situation

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Speaker 1: is the Australian Medical Association's and to president doctor Robert Parker.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, doctor Parker.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now tell us a little bit more. Were her hospital

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Speaker 1: staff aware of this Telstra maintenance, Not that I'm aware.

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Speaker 2: I think there has been some messages said out, but

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Speaker 2: I obviously missed the regular messages. So the first thing

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Speaker 2: I became aware of is we just couldn't communicate with

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Speaker 2: any other medical staff during using mobile phones. Wow. And

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Speaker 2: it's good to hear that the Department's got some sort

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Speaker 2: of contingency as appropriate for when the mobile towers are down,

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Speaker 2: potentially post a cyclone or something. But the problem is

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Speaker 2: everyone relies on these phones at the moment and I

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Speaker 2: had a crisis emergency the other day that needed urgent

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Speaker 2: resolution and I couldn't communicate my registrar. And you know,

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Speaker 2: if it had actually I suppose, fortunately it turned out well,

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Speaker 2: but if it hadn't, you know, the coroner might have

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Speaker 2: had an interest in the communication. And why people couldn't

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Speaker 2: effectively communicate.

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Speaker 1: Is actually like a life and death situation.

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Speaker 2: To Parker, yeah, exactly exactly. And I couldn't. I couldn't

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Speaker 2: communicate with people who needed to be communicated with to

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Speaker 2: help assist this patient, you know so. And I did

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Speaker 2: actually ring Telstra to vent my spleen about the situation

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Speaker 2: and talk to someone who basically said to indicate there

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Speaker 2: was no managerial oversight of it. He said it was

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Speaker 2: basically up the technicians how they did it, and certain

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Speaker 2: parts of the northern suburbs would be would be getting

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Speaker 2: four G coverage ahead of the hospital. And I would

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Speaker 2: have thought, you know, a manager, a Telstra manager either

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Speaker 2: back in Melbourne or in Darwin might have had a

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Speaker 2: thought about the impact of this, not just leaving into

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Speaker 2: technicians to the side which networks are going to go

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Speaker 2: ahead and think about the potential impact on health services.

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Speaker 2: So you're already wondering whether any managers were actually involved

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Speaker 2: in planning this and whether there was any communication between

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Speaker 2: head office and the territory about the potential impact on

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Speaker 2: health services.

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Speaker 1: So doctor Parker is, look is the main form of

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Speaker 1: communication within stuff at the hospital right now? Realistically to

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Speaker 1: actually use your mobile.

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Speaker 2: Phones, we can't do that work. So we've actually got

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Speaker 2: to try and what do you want to use landlines

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Speaker 2: as I'm doing at the moment, or we've been told

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Speaker 2: to use Wi Fi. You know. When I talk to

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Speaker 2: the Telstra person in Melbourne, they said, well, you know

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Speaker 2: your landlines work, don't you and your Wi Fi works?

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Speaker 2: And yes they do, but if you know, but again,

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Speaker 2: trying to find someone on a landline when people are

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Speaker 2: out and about mobile through the hospital. Things have changed

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Speaker 2: so that the person in Melbourne might you know, what

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Speaker 2: he was talking about might have been good for the

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Speaker 2: nineteen nineties, but this is twenty twenty four. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I don't think you seem to appreciate that. You know,

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Speaker 2: the mobile phones now have become an intrable part of

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Speaker 2: communication in health services.

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Speaker 1: Honestly, it sounds, it sounds unbelievable that you're in a

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Speaker 1: situation where you're not actually able to communicate with each other.

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Speaker 1: And I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong

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Speaker 1: that the alam Walker Cancer Center and the Mental Health

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Speaker 1: Precinct to are the main areas that have been impacted.

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Speaker 2: Is that right? No, it ruled out, And you can't

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Speaker 2: get communication if we're in the tower, So there's no

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Speaker 2: I can't pick up any I've got no mobile communication

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Speaker 2: anywhere anywhere in the ADH tower at the moment.

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Speaker 1: So when the department says that there's you know there's

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Speaker 1: other continuity plans in place. What are they from your.

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Speaker 2: Perspectivelue, I've got a clue. It's very good they've got

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Speaker 2: a continuity plan, but myself and the other collisions of

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Speaker 2: the host and I don't think they're aware of it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Bloody Health sounds like it might have to go

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Speaker 1: back to the old days of having a pager.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, I mean there are certain yeah, and

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Speaker 2: that to be fair, there are a lot of medical

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Speaker 2: stuff who do have pages. Yeah, so that that has

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Speaker 2: probably helped in this situation. I don't and a lot

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Speaker 2: of a lot of the consultants don't. They use their phones,

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Speaker 2: and they said, we had an emergency the other day

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Speaker 2: and I couldn't communicate with my registrar in potentially your

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Speaker 2: life and death situation.

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Speaker 1: So I don't like, obviously don't talk us through, you know,

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Speaker 1: the ins and outs of that case. But Dr Parker like,

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Speaker 1: how pivotal is it that you've got mobile phone communication

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Speaker 1: and coverage within the hospital and the whole hospital precinct.

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Speaker 2: Well, it seems to be a fairly said. You know,

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Speaker 2: the guy in Melbourne I was talking to, I seem

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Speaker 2: to think we were back in the ninety nineties when

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Speaker 2: everything was okay. But think you know, we've moved forward

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Speaker 2: and pretty much every person I know, every other coalition

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Speaker 2: I are in the hospital now tends to use mobile

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Speaker 2: phones to communicate. I mean pages are yes, certain number

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Speaker 2: of Clusians have pages and they are very useful, But

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Speaker 2: pretty much every other we work with these days it's

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Speaker 2: by mobile phone.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like an absolute I don't know what the

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Speaker 1: right word is. That's not swearing, doctor Parker, so I

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Speaker 1: won't say it. It sounds like a cluster. Let's just

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Speaker 1: say that what I mean, what what needs to happen here?

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Speaker 1: I would assume that you've had discussions with management and

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Speaker 1: as you've touched on, then you tried to have discussions

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Speaker 1: with Telstra like where two from here is the Minister

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Speaker 1: for Health aware of it?

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Speaker 2: Well, no, I don't pretentially you just to see if

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Speaker 2: there is actually a Telstra manager in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: and whether whether they've actually had any input into the

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Speaker 2: the planning is I'm in the national Telstra manager CEO

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Speaker 2: may have been at the Birdcay just so they enjoyed

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Speaker 2: the hospitality. Well, you know, whereas we've got a major

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Speaker 2: drama here in the territory, and it doesn't appear to

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Speaker 2: be any communication between what's happening at head office in

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Speaker 2: Melbourne and senior management and territory. We don't know who

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Speaker 2: the managers are well, what they're doing, who's planning stuff.

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Speaker 1: My understanding is there is someone based here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern territory. So we'll get right onto that and see

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Speaker 1: whether we can find out, you know, what can be done,

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Speaker 1: or whether things can be sped up, or there can

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Speaker 1: be a contingency in some way, shape or form.

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Speaker 2: So because the guy I took to a tellistre at

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Speaker 2: the head office seemed to indicate it was all in

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Speaker 2: the hands of the technicians, so there was no managerial

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Speaker 2: involvement from his perspective, which is bizarre because you think

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Speaker 2: a manager would actually plan the whole thing out to

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Speaker 2: try and avoid what's happening currently happening.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so have you spoken to the Minister for Health,

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Speaker 1: the new Minister for Health, Steve Edgington, about these concerns

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 2: No, we are working on developing a communication pathway. We're

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Speaker 2: actually meeting with the CEO tomorrow. We're actually meeting with

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Speaker 2: a new minister in a week which will be great

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Speaker 2: to catch up with Steve and have a bit of

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Speaker 2: a chat about some of the issues we're concerned about.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Well it sounds like that meeting can't come

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Speaker 1: soon enough.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think then this is really responsible through telecommunication.

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Speaker 2: I mean, in many ways, it's just trying to find

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Speaker 2: a responsible person in the territory you can talk to,

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Speaker 2: rather than some guy in Melbourne that's sort of fixtated

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Speaker 2: in the nineteen nineties about nine ninety is communication rather

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Speaker 2: than the the real issues of facing health and the

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Speaker 2: territory at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, Dr Parker, we will try, We'll try and

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Speaker 1: get in contact with Telstra, But I mean, really, what

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Speaker 1: is the main message for Tellstro today?

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Speaker 2: Well, I suppose it'd be nice to have some managerial oversight,

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Speaker 2: to find someone who actually is responsible for the planning

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Speaker 2: of this and can actually explain why the hospital was

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Speaker 2: a relow priority for this upgrade compared to other parts.

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Speaker 2: You know the guy and Melbury guy and Melbourne tom Me,

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Speaker 2: you know that other parts of the northern suburbs. And

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Speaker 2: now I've got good for g upgrades and good on them.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to deny people that, but you would

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Speaker 2: have thought the hospital in planning for this, The hospital

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Speaker 2: would have been an important priority for Telstra, and you

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Speaker 2: know a manager may have made that sort of decision

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Speaker 2: rather than leaving it. The guy in Melbourne said it

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Speaker 2: was all up to the text. Who did it? I

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Speaker 2: would have thought, you know, a managerial decision rather than

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Speaker 2: the text might have been important. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Look, I agree with you. I think that there does

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Speaker 1: need to you need to have these contingencies, but you

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Speaker 1: also need to have a plan in place, and everybody

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Speaker 1: at the hospital needs to know so that if you

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Speaker 1: do require other forms of can comunication, you're at least

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Speaker 1: aware of that, particularly you know, for yourself for example,

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Speaker 1: when you're in a situation earlier in the week where

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Speaker 1: it's absolutely crucial.

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Speaker 2: That's right, you know. And as I said, it's a

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Speaker 2: bit sad that death Tellstra now there's no one we

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Speaker 2: can really talk to him. It's almost impossible to find

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Speaker 2: a manager in Telster. When I rang the guy in Melbourne,

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Speaker 2: I did ask to go higher up a chain and

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Speaker 2: was no thanks, adamantly refused to talk to anyone who

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Speaker 2: might have had an influence on the situation.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, as I say, my understanding is that there is.

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Speaker 1: There is a manager here and we've spoken to him

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Speaker 1: on the show before, so we will definitely do our

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Speaker 1: best to see whether we can get in contact and

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Speaker 1: either speak to him ourselves or try and connect you

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Speaker 1: with him so that we can try to sort this

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Speaker 1: situation out for staff at the hospital, because fundamentally it

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Speaker 1: needs to be sorted for patient safety exactly.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's having it could potentially have every significant.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, doctor Robert Parker. It's

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Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you. This morning has

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Speaker 1: certainly been interesting. I was not expecting that situation to

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Speaker 1: be as I'm as bad as what it is right

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Speaker 1: now for you guys.

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Speaker 2: Yep, yep, it's not good.

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Speaker 1: No, it truly isn't by the sounds of it, Doctor

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Speaker 1: Robert Parker. We always appreciate your time. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for having a chat today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,