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Speaker 1: Well, that is certainly true. You are our eyes neears

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Speaker 1: in the territory, and yesterday Bruce was our eysneers in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, calling through to let us know that

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Speaker 1: his surgery had been delayed. Take a listen to what

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Speaker 1: Bruce told us yesterday on the show.

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Speaker 2: I've just had the theater scheduling from Royald Island Hospital

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Speaker 2: call me about half an hour ago. Yep, I'm due

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Speaker 2: to have my knee replaced on Friday. Yeah, I've been

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Speaker 2: waiting for this for a while there, and yeah, they've

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Speaker 2: had to reschedule it because apparently the hospital is full.

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Speaker 3: So there you go.

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Speaker 1: That was Bruce on the show yesterday just before midday. Now,

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Speaker 1: following on from that conversation with Bruce, Max, my producer,

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Speaker 1: got in contact and passed that information on to the

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Speaker 1: Health Minister's office and also to the Department and basically

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Speaker 1: we didn't get a response initially, but then about an

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Speaker 1: hour and a half later a statement was issued by

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Speaker 1: the Department of Health, well really explaining or saying that

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Speaker 1: we are actually in a code yellow. So they confirmed

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Speaker 1: that Royal Darwin Hospital is experiencing a Code yellow. The

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Speaker 1: hospital has been at or near escalation Plan four for

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Speaker 1: ten days now. They say this is despite concentrated efforts

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Speaker 1: from all staff to improve patient flow through admission and

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Speaker 1: discharge initiatives. Now, we did put in a request to

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Speaker 1: have someone on from the Health Departmentfortunately they're not available today,

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Speaker 1: but joining me on the line is the Opposition spokesperson

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Speaker 1: for Health, Bill Yan.

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Speaker 3: Good morning to.

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Speaker 4: You, Bill, Good morning Katie, and good morning to your

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Speaker 4: listeners up there in Darwin.

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Speaker 1: Now, Bill, what was your reaction to that code yellow

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Speaker 1: being announced yesterday?

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Speaker 4: It was another shock, I suppose, certainly to me, I

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Speaker 4: hadn't had any heads up from government either. Normally there's

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Speaker 4: a little bit of courtesy that goes backwards and forwards

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Speaker 4: between the Health Minister and the Shadow minister. Yeah, I

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Speaker 4: found out pretty well the same as you, doing some

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Speaker 4: investigating work our selves. But this is the second time

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Speaker 4: this year we've had a code yellow and it is.

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Speaker 1: Well it is and it's the second time this year

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Speaker 1: as well that we've had a code yellow that we've

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Speaker 1: not been told about until we've contacted the Health Department

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Speaker 1: or the Health Minister's office, So you know that in itself.

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Speaker 1: To me, I think that this type of thing needs

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Speaker 1: to be communicated much better with territorians.

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Speaker 4: Well, it certainly does, Katie, and we spoke about this,

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Speaker 4: I believe, in estimates not that long ago with the

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Speaker 4: Health Minister about the k yellow because we were asking

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Speaker 4: questions about it, and the minister and the staff actually

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Speaker 4: gave some I suppose consent or at least some understanding

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Speaker 4: that they need to communicate this better with territories when

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Speaker 4: there's issues, say that people are not finding out by

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Speaker 4: accident or having to go searching for the information themselves.

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Speaker 4: This needs to be out in front of territorials to

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Speaker 4: let people know what's going on so that they can

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Speaker 4: make plans should they have to bill.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that if the hospital is understrained for

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Speaker 1: ten days that the public should have been notified sooner.

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Speaker 4: Look, I think so, Katie, because look, the public are

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Speaker 4: pretty understanding of our hospitals. Look, they're under pressure at times.

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Speaker 4: People can make some plans Okay I'm not feeling well,

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Speaker 4: or I need this, or there's something wrong. I might

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Speaker 4: be able to pop into my local clinic. I might

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Speaker 4: be able to pop into my GP. The things that

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Speaker 4: people can do to probably help our hospitals out if

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Speaker 4: they knew in advance. This whole idea of keeping it

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Speaker 4: sort of hidden and not telling them until the absolute

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Speaker 4: last minute is not helping territories and certainly not helping

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Speaker 4: our health staff, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: The Code yellow does mean that the Category two and

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Speaker 1: three elective surgeries have been temporarily postponed so that patients

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Speaker 1: with more urgent care needs can be admitted to hospital,

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Speaker 1: and Northern Territory Health is going to be contacting well

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Speaker 1: those impacted patients as soon as possible with a new

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Speaker 1: surgery date.

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Speaker 3: We know that emergency surgery.

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Speaker 1: Is going to continue as normal, Specialist out patients continue

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Speaker 1: as normal as well. Bill, you know, is this an

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Speaker 1: adequate situation from your perspective.

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Speaker 4: Well, it's really tough on those people who had those

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Speaker 4: surgeries booked, and it's not just as Code yellow that's

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Speaker 4: affected them either recently with their lockdown and our COVID issues.

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Speaker 4: Of course, those elective surgeries got pushed back as well,

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Speaker 4: and there were some cancer surgeries that were classes elective

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Speaker 4: surgeries which got pushed back, which we actually we raised

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Speaker 4: with the Minister and they got action thankfully, and certainly

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Speaker 4: for those people who were affected. But it's these little

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Speaker 4: things that keep pushing these surgeries back and what might

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Speaker 4: be an elective surgery to a bureaucrat sitting somewhere in

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Speaker 4: an office, it means that it's a big deal to

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Speaker 4: the person who has the problem. The man that you

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Speaker 4: had on the radio with his nee replacement, now he's

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Speaker 4: probably in a lot of pain and his mobility is

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Speaker 4: impaired because of that neee replacement that he needs to have.

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Speaker 4: How long has he been waiting and how long is

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Speaker 4: he now going to have to wait to get him

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Speaker 4: to get that surgery done? It beggars belief.

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Speaker 1: Well, and Bruce is back on the line. We're going

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Speaker 1: to talk to him again in just a couple of moments.

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Speaker 1: I know that you know, all of us understand that

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Speaker 1: our hospitals will be understrained at different times, that there

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Speaker 1: are times when those beds fill up for numerous reasons.

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Speaker 3: I think that we.

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Speaker 1: All know that the staff out there at Royal Darwin

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Speaker 1: Hospital do a phenomenal job. But Olki, one of our

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Speaker 1: other listeners, has been in contact and said, Hi, Katie,

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Speaker 1: please remind all of your guests that the Palmerston.

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Speaker 3: Hospital is empty.

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Speaker 1: Bill, you know, having a think about the Palmerston Hospital

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Speaker 1: here as well, do you think that we need to

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Speaker 1: sort of be managing things differently maybe so that there

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Speaker 1: is capacity for further beds out in Parmiston, not only beds,

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Speaker 1: but to be able to maybe perform some of the

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Speaker 1: different different health needs out in Palmerston rather than that

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Speaker 1: strain at Royal Darwin Hospital.

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Speaker 4: Well, that's absolutely right, Katie. And again we've raised this

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Speaker 4: with government, is how they're utilizing the Palmerston Hospital in

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Speaker 4: conjunction with Royal Darwen. We get told that, eh, they're

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Speaker 4: one and they're same, they're one in the same region.

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Speaker 4: But if we've got Royal Darwin overflowing or at code

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Speaker 4: yellow because of infrastructure needs, and you've got Palmerston that

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Speaker 4: has beds and has the capability and capacity to take

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Speaker 4: some of that load away, it would make sense, it's

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Speaker 4: common sense to utilize the facilities we've got out of

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Speaker 4: Palmerston and alleviate some of the loads on ardiation they've

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Speaker 4: been putting. They've been doubling up in cubicles in A

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Speaker 4: and E for god knows how long in ardas. I've

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Speaker 4: seen it for myself. Again, it doesn't make sense. We've

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Speaker 4: asked when they're going to be some infrastructure change to

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Speaker 4: assist Royal Darwen Hospital, and unfortunately we get back the

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Speaker 4: same old answer, it's the crickets in the night. We

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Speaker 4: don't really get much back at all.

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Speaker 3: So well, I know as well, will be.

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Speaker 4: Some strategic thoughts about how they're going to utilize their resources,

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Speaker 4: and we're not seen at the moment.

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Speaker 3: I know as well.

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Speaker 1: You've been questioning how many patients realistically are affected by

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Speaker 1: this canceling of elected elective surgery, and how long they'll

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Speaker 1: be canceled and when they're going to resume. These are

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Speaker 1: I guess some of the questions that we would like

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Speaker 1: to put to the Health Department, but unfortunately we're not

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Speaker 1: able to get anybody on. Have you had many people

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Speaker 1: in contact with your office raising concerns about this? I

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Speaker 1: know obviously you're based in Alice, but has the Opposition

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Speaker 1: had many many Territorians in contact pretty concerned about their

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Speaker 1: surgery being postponed.

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Speaker 4: I believe so. We've had some contact through the Opposition

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Speaker 4: leader's office in Darwin about some of those issues, and

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Speaker 4: I've been keeping abreast of some of the comments on

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Speaker 4: either social media or through NT News with their reporting

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Speaker 4: on it. There's a lot of people pretty upset about

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Speaker 4: what's going on, particularly the fact that, of course it's

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Speaker 4: all around the same time, there's means that dollars being

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Speaker 4: spent on I said, throw greendsteins and thirty five million

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Speaker 4: dollars going out as payments to previous detainees. Why was

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Speaker 4: this money being spent in our hospital? Wasn't it being

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Speaker 4: spent for the benefit of territories, all territorians.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, it's a question.

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Speaker 4: It's the feedback I'm getting from people on the ground.

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Speaker 1: I reckon it's a question that will be high on

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Speaker 1: the minds of a lot of territories. I do want

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Speaker 1: to just ask you very quickly, are you concerned? You know,

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Speaker 1: I know that we've been very lucky when it comes

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Speaker 1: to COVID, and it's been very well managed, and even

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Speaker 1: when we went into lockdown we managed things incredibly well.

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Speaker 1: But are you concerned realistically here, if we've already got

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Speaker 1: a hospital that's under strain, that should some thing like that,

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Speaker 1: should we end up in a situation like New South

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Speaker 1: Wales for example, God forbid that we just wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: the capacity to deal with it.

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Speaker 4: Well, I think if we got the delta strain into

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Speaker 4: the territory and we had to utilize ARDIH because they

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Speaker 4: have a plan in certain mead to put aside for COVID.

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Speaker 4: It would certainly compromise our ability for for territories to

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Speaker 4: manage some of the day to day stuff that we

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Speaker 4: need to do. Our health workers are already under immense pressure,

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Speaker 4: putting them under further pressure if we had a COVID outbreak,

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Speaker 4: it might be to stray the breaks the camel's back.

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Speaker 4: I've been talking to people in HR and Health and

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Speaker 4: we can't get nurses to the territory. We can't fill positions,

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Speaker 4: lockdowns or having to quarantine coming up. There's all sorts

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Speaker 4: of reasons we can't get staffed to come up to

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Speaker 4: the teritory of minter states. So we're in a bit

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Speaker 4: of a I suppose a dark spot at present. Hopefully

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Speaker 4: we're going to see some lights soon. We can get

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Speaker 4: some staff and we can get those floes heaping through

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Speaker 4: those beds better. But at the moment I said, I'm

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Speaker 4: quite worried about our capacity to cope, particularly in Royal

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Speaker 4: Dale went to prison.

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Speaker 1: Bill Yan, the opposition spokesperson for Health, we really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thanks so much for chatting with us.

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Speaker 4: No, thanks Katie, thank you. Yeah, looking forward to catching

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Speaker 4: up with you again soon.

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Speaker 3: Sounds good. Thank you, Bill,