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Speaker 1: Another Code Yellow has been called for Royal Darwin and

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Speaker 1: Palmeston Hospitals due to ongoing peaks in demand and admissions.

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Speaker 1: Some elective surgeries this time have had to be postponed

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Speaker 1: to free up beds for patients with urgent needs, with

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Health contacting those impacted people as soon as

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Speaker 1: possible with new dates. That is what they have told us.

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Speaker 1: Now it's a second Code YELLO in a recent week,

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Speaker 1: with the last one lifted on Friday and this one

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Speaker 1: declared four days later is our understanding. Now joining me

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Speaker 1: on the line to talk a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: this is doctor Robert Parker, the head of them, the AMA,

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Speaker 1: the Australian Medical Association. Good morning to you, doctor Parker.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie. Look, I was a very impressed to hear

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Speaker 2: you talking about Mosquito wealth just now. And a big

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Speaker 2: shout out to our etymology branch and the center of

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Speaker 2: the lease control that keep territory and safe from horrible

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Speaker 2: such as Bengey fever the malaria. They're doing a great

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Speaker 2: job keeping us all safe, so good on them.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. Now this Code yellow, Rob did you even

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Speaker 1: know that the last one had lifted?

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Speaker 2: Not really, No, it's not good. I mean, the poor

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Speaker 2: people that had to have their surgery delayed and whatever

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Speaker 2: I mean. In the end, this is an end result

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Speaker 2: of years of underfunding by both sides of politics in

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Speaker 2: terms of acute care. Really Parmerston Hospital, you know, the

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Speaker 2: original design for Parmerston Hospital was to be more of

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Speaker 2: an age care facility. And one of our big problems

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Speaker 2: at the moment is that about twenty percent of hospital

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Speaker 2: beds are occupied by people who need to be in

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Speaker 2: a nursing home. They need good care in nursing home.

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Speaker 2: When those nursing hit and it's not available, they're stuck

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Speaker 2: in hospital beds and it's really leading to a significant

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Speaker 2: package of hospital resources.

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Speaker 1: And you and I have spoken about this on so

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Speaker 1: many occasions. In fact, you know, Dr Parker. Up until

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, I can't remember co Yellow's

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Speaker 1: sort of being called so free Quay, but it seems

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Speaker 1: to have become something that's happening so often that you know,

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Speaker 1: sometimes we're not even reporting it in the media anymore.

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Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately, it just it's a constant issue of a

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Speaker 2: hospital in crist as a hospital operating beyond the resources

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Speaker 2: for which it was designed and unfortunately. I mean we've

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Speaker 2: been you know, I made Minister A hundred aware of

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Speaker 2: that in twenty nineteen with my letter to him about

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Speaker 2: how you know, territory hospitals were two to three times

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Speaker 2: as busy as other hospitals in Australia and it hasn't improved.

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Speaker 2: It didn't improve. You know, COVID put extra pressure on.

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Speaker 2: It also affected ability to recruit staff. And now you know,

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Speaker 2: apart from the issues of bed blockages with individuals who

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Speaker 2: need to be in nursing homes rather than hospital, there's

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Speaker 2: also the issue of being able to get staff to

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Speaker 2: care for all of us. Puts pressure on hospital resources.

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Speaker 1: So doctor Parker, on this occasion, you know, as the

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Speaker 1: head of the AMA here in the territory, are you

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Speaker 1: even like, are you notified when there is a co jello?

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Speaker 2: No, no, no one bothers I've kept in the dark

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Speaker 2: most of the time. The yeah, most of the time. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: It's just one of those things. It's almost like a

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Speaker 2: constant issue now. Yeah. So no, I'm not like, how.

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Speaker 1: Concerning is that, because you know, you and I are

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Speaker 1: kind of having half a laugh about it because we're thinking,

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Speaker 1: oh goodness, me, the other one hadn't even lifted and

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Speaker 1: now there's one back in. But as you just said,

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Speaker 1: like it demonstrates at the hospitals in a state of crisis.

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Speaker 2: That's right, And unfortunately it said this has taken years

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Speaker 2: to develop. There's a range of issues that have occurred

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Speaker 2: over years where decisions were made that possibly could have

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Speaker 2: been done better. Both sides of politics had made decisions,

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Speaker 2: not one particular party. And again it's unfortunately issue also

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Speaker 2: of the baby boomers, that the baby boomers are now

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Speaker 2: reaching a stage where they are often presenting with really

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Speaker 2: complex health problems. But just you know, you can't present

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Speaker 2: a need NBS at home. They're often very complex health

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Speaker 2: problems that leed for the care, which is also contributing

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Speaker 2: to the blockage and hospital beds.

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Speaker 1: In terms of the action that we need to take,

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Speaker 1: and I know that the Chief Minister has been on

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Speaker 1: the show before and she has said that there is

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Speaker 1: work getting underway in terms of those I think it's

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Speaker 1: sixty additional beds for aged care. We know that there

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Speaker 1: is work as I understand it, on the facility for

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Speaker 1: mental health or some additional support in that space. But

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Speaker 1: I mean, do we just sort of continue on in

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Speaker 1: this way, what else can be done aside from additional

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Speaker 1: funding to try and sort this out.

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Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately, you know, the sidate has taken years to develop,

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Speaker 2: and I mean the Chief Minister is working on solutions.

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Speaker 2: These are unfortunately not things that can happen immediately. You know,

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Speaker 2: bricks and mortar takes time to build bricks and mortar.

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Speaker 2: I'm in the new mental health units happening right next

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Speaker 2: to my office at the moment, but that's probably going

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Speaker 2: to be a year or two away in terms of

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Speaker 2: building and all various regulations that are required to make

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Speaker 2: it work. Staffing, I mean, it's okay to actually put beds,

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Speaker 2: but then you've actually got to find staff to actually

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Speaker 2: look after people, and you've got to fund it. I

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Speaker 2: mean each bed, each new bid you put into hospitals

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Speaker 2: roughly around a million dollars extra per year in staffing

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Speaker 2: cost ongoing you start to look after that patient. Yeah, wow,

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Speaker 2: all of which adds to the health budget, you know.

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Speaker 2: So it's a complex issue for the government. I mean

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Speaker 2: they've got other issues of well, I need to keep

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Speaker 2: government running other areas apart from health, and it's always

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Speaker 2: how you cut the cake, how much money goes to

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Speaker 2: help how much money goes to other government departments, all

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Speaker 2: of which are needing, you know, so I don't envy

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister. You know, it's a complex issue.

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Speaker 1: Now, on a separate matter, I know the federal government's

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Speaker 1: announced a new funding agreement with the Northern Territory to

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Speaker 1: put hundreds more doctors into regional, rural and remote locations.

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Speaker 1: Have you seen much about this announcement and what do

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Speaker 1: you make of it?

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Speaker 2: Well, there used to be a program and it had

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of peas in it and I can't

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Speaker 2: actually real the name of it because we're about six

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Speaker 2: or seven peas in the title. We're actually very good

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Speaker 2: at putting junior doctors into remote areas so they could

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Speaker 2: have an experience of rural health and apparently it was

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Speaker 2: working very well at exciting young people into those into

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Speaker 2: those rural areas. Then it was the funded everything fell away,

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Speaker 2: So you know, obviously extra funding and initiatives is always welcome.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's obviously it's well recognized there's a significant

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Speaker 2: maldistribution of health resources in Australia, with the big cities

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Speaker 2: getting the majority of things and often rural and remote

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Speaker 2: areas having significant problems with health resources. So it's a

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Speaker 2: very very good initiative to try and improve that, although

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Speaker 2: I'm a bit pessimistic unfortunately the I think there's reasons

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Speaker 2: that that people aren't going to remote rural areas now

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Speaker 2: or as they used to. And certainly, I mean one

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Speaker 2: of the big problems we have, for example, the GP

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Speaker 2: registrar registrars who used to be able to go to

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Speaker 2: rural areas and health clinics, and there's been big problems

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Speaker 2: now with transferability of entitlements whatever, which has led to

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Speaker 2: a significant shortage of GP British stars wanting to go

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Speaker 2: to rural areas.

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Speaker 1: And so is it something that the AMA was sort

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Speaker 1: of consulted about before the announcement was made to try

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Speaker 1: to make sure that it can be successful.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure there was national consultation that certainly wasn't with

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Speaker 2: me in the NT, but you know, I'm sure the

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Speaker 2: I'm sure the Federal President was involved, and you know,

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Speaker 2: that's that's good. I mean, the AMA is very concerned

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Speaker 2: about health workforce and has got ongoing discussion with a

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Speaker 2: range of individuals and committees about health workforce meeting in

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Speaker 2: the national program. At its recent Council meeting in Canberra.

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Speaker 2: They had a discussion with Brendan Murphy, who's now retired

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Speaker 2: as the CEO of the Federal Health Department. Has obviously

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Speaker 2: got an ongoing interest in health work was matter. So

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Speaker 2: the AMA is very involved in this issue.

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Speaker 1: So, doctor Parker, I mean, with an announcement like this,

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Speaker 1: do you expect that it's going to help address the

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Speaker 1: doctor the shortage that we've got or potentially not well?

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Speaker 2: You hope's okay. You hope young people will be inspired

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Speaker 2: and pytically if they're well supported. The issue is again

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Speaker 2: that the things that keeps people in a particular location

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Speaker 2: user of the partner and the mortgage. So if you

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Speaker 2: can get people involved are interested, and they've got partners

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Speaker 2: who can also be excited and interested in rural locations

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Speaker 2: and they can also buy a house there, it's going

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Speaker 2: to keep people in rural areas and keep them working well.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Robert Parker, I always appreciate your time. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: Just before I let you go, I mean, on that

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Speaker 1: code yellow with some of the deferrals of surgeries, is

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Speaker 1: it going to cause us to have a bit of

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Speaker 1: a banking up?

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Speaker 2: Do you think unfortunately. Yeah, the poor individuals have had

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Speaker 2: their surgery cancel have often got chronic, disabling, painful conditions

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Speaker 2: which are not going to go away, so they're probably

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Speaker 2: going to get worse. So yes, of course it's going

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Speaker 2: to add to a significant banking up as time progresses.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, it's terrible for the individuals involved

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Speaker 2: having surgery delayed, often for not fatal stuff, but it's

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Speaker 2: often disabling and very uncomfortable. Yeah, so they have to

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Speaker 2: have a surgery at some stage, but it just leads

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Speaker 2: to a significant banking up of problems.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, ye, spot on. Well, doctor Robert Parker, I always

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

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Speaker 1: chat with us today.

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Speaker 2: No worries, Katie, good to talk.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,