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Speaker 1: Now as we know, there has indeed been a Code

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Speaker 1: yellow called for the Royal Dalwen and Palmerston Hospital due

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Speaker 1: to a peak in demand after a steady increase of

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Speaker 1: patient admissions. That is what the Department of Health have said,

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Speaker 1: and the declaration allows for measures to be enacted to

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Speaker 1: ease pressures on the system with no change to elective surgeries.

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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line to tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about the situation is the Australian Medical Association's

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory president, doctor Robert Parker. Good morning to you,

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Speaker 1: Dr Parker.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie, but thank you very much for the introduction.

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Speaker 2: But I'm not sure a ware of the details how

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Speaker 2: they're adjusting around so they can still keep the Code

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Speaker 2: yellow going without dealing with elective surgeries. That's usually the

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Speaker 2: first things do, so it's obviously been creative in other areas.

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Speaker 2: I'm not around the details unfortunately.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so how I mean, it is interesting though that

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Speaker 1: you say that, because usually what we see with the

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Speaker 1: Code yellow is the elective surgeries do get canceled, don't.

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Speaker 2: They indeed, you know, so I'm not quite sure what

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Speaker 2: they're doing, but obviously the managers are adjusting stuff to

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Speaker 2: make things work. It depends again. I mean, a code

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Speaker 2: yellow indicates a level of acuity. It may be you know,

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Speaker 2: it's been previs discussed in it issue. It may be

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Speaker 2: something else that's causing it. It could be a particular

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Speaker 2: area of medicine, you know, like medicine or surgery or

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Speaker 2: mental health. It's putting the pressure on, So, you know,

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Speaker 2: it depends. I suppose each code yellow is different to

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Speaker 2: a degree, and all it indicates is a formal level

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Speaker 2: of recognition that the system is in crisis and the

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Speaker 2: system has to adjust. So I suppose it depends on

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Speaker 2: what the particular cause of this code yellow is and

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Speaker 2: then how they adapt around it.

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Speaker 1: And Dr Parker, you know, given the fact that you

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Speaker 1: are the head of the AMA, have they indicated what

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Speaker 1: the cause of it is this time round?

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Speaker 2: They haven't told me. You know, I'm usually kept out

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Speaker 2: of the loop, but yeah, what.

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Speaker 1: A doctor's telling you though. I mean, it feels as

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Speaker 1: though because we have had now four code yellows at

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Speaker 1: Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital this year, it

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Speaker 1: feels as though we are experiencing more code yellows than

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Speaker 1: what I can recall in previous years.

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Speaker 2: What doctors are telling me is the system has been

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Speaker 2: underfunded by both sides of politics for years and it's

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Speaker 2: now catching up and has pointed out in my letters

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Speaker 2: the Ministrant many years ago. At that stage in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: you know, the hospital was already under significant stress, which

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Speaker 2: hasn't got better, you know, and so it's the pressure continues.

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Speaker 2: They're significant. There's been significant underfunding of beers and it's

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Speaker 2: now coming to a point where the system is just

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Speaker 2: not coping from Code yelow to code yellow.

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Speaker 1: And so how are our doctors and medical staff coping

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Well, again, the system again, I refer to all the

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Speaker 2: heroes of the hospital and the doctors, nurses, ots, physios, cooks, cleaners,

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Speaker 2: they're all working to you know, make the system work

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Speaker 2: and adapting their skills around, you know, to make the

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Speaker 2: system work and make sure that patients get good care

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Speaker 2: so that you know, it just increases the stress that

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Speaker 2: people are under.

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Speaker 1: So at this point in time, are you sort of

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Speaker 1: aware of the factors that have contributed to this declaration

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Speaker 1: this on this occasion.

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Speaker 2: No, I think I've been a way so I've just

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Speaker 2: sort of come back into this, So I'm not aware

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Speaker 2: and I haven't earn any sort of background information from anybody,

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Speaker 2: but I think it'll be the usual issue of bed block.

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Speaker 2: And again one of our major bedlocks and the blocks

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Speaker 2: as an example, is a large number of people who

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Speaker 2: need nursing home beds. I mean, I think at last

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Speaker 2: count it was twenty percent of hospital beds currently are

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Speaker 2: occupied by individuals who should be in a nursing home

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Speaker 2: rather than hospital, you know, and that's a significant pressure

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Speaker 2: on beds, so that that's continuing. I mean, there's no

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Speaker 2: new nursing home development, there's no new planning to make

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Speaker 2: sure these individuals are safely cared for outside the hospital system.

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Speaker 2: That's a continuing pressure on hospital beds. And if it

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Speaker 2: means you get are ramping up, you know, for example

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Speaker 2: the flu cases, it puts pressure on existing bedstocks and

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Speaker 2: it's very difficult to Yeah, it's very difficult to sort

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Speaker 2: of move these individuals onst the beads and the wards

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Speaker 2: to look after the incoming people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we were actually just talking about that as well.

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Speaker 1: We're just talking to Sushira from KOs to the Council

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Speaker 1: of the Aging and and you know, she didn't have

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Speaker 1: the exact detail either, but she had said it would

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Speaker 1: not surprise her if it was elderly patients that were

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Speaker 1: taking up some of those beads, because we just don't

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Speaker 1: have the volume of age care beds that we actually need.

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Speaker 2: And an additional factor is, I mean we've now one

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Speaker 2: of the I mean, the baby boomer issue has been

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Speaker 2: a very good thing for Australia in terms of economic prosperity,

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Speaker 2: people living longer and whatever. But unfortunately now people are

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Speaker 2: presenting at a later stage of life, often with complex

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Speaker 2: medical conditions that you just can't quickly fix it in

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Speaker 2: them home. So that complexity vision there. I mean the

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Speaker 2: AMA has been aware of that, and there's a national process,

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Speaker 2: not just charitory hospital. So having that issue and the

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Speaker 2: territory and the AMA nationally has been doing the loggam

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Speaker 2: campaign to make the federal and state territory governments more

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Speaker 2: interested I suppose in something hospitals to deal with the

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Speaker 2: I suppose the growing epidemic of baby boomer old age

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Speaker 2: issues that are happening.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Parker, how big an impact do you think that

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Speaker 1: alcohol issue, says, well in the Northern Territory has on

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Speaker 1: our emergency department and our hospitals.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's been very clear from what happened in our

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Speaker 2: springs that you know, with the with the relaxation of

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Speaker 2: alcohol laws, it was chaos. I didn't inform Minister Files

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Speaker 2: about that and gave us some published information from Queensland

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Speaker 2: where it was very clear about the population effect of

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Speaker 2: alcohol and communities. The government choose to ignore that particular advice.

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Speaker 2: It was chaos. They reintroduced the alcohol restrictions and there's

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Speaker 2: been a significant reduction in alcohol related issues within the

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Speaker 2: eed and the hospital generally. So there's no doubt that.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's a very good example of the effect

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Speaker 2: of alcohol and its effect on a QKRE services in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: I know that my listeners probably won't like this question,

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Speaker 1: but I mean, do you think that restrictions in other

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Speaker 1: parts of the Northern Territory would make a difference on

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Speaker 1: our healthcare?

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Speaker 2: Well, again, it's quite difficult to actually enforce alcoholictrictions in

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Speaker 2: the bigger areas. I mean, smaller communities such as Alice Springs,

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Speaker 2: Catherine and whatever. You've got far less outlets. It's easier

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Speaker 2: to enforce restrictions in a bigger area such as Darwin.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot more complex and so I'd expect we're

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Speaker 2: not going to be having that anytime soon.

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Speaker 1: Now. Can I ask how much of an issue is

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Speaker 1: people sort of presenting to ED as well for non

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Speaker 1: urgent matters.

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Speaker 2: Well, again, I'm not the ED keep on telling is

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Speaker 2: it's not such a major issue. I mean the issue

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Speaker 2: is if you present as a cat for which is

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Speaker 2: not emergency, you often have to wait for hours or

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Speaker 2: even days to get your issues sorted. And I think

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Speaker 2: it's often to the terrant, and particularly the having been

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Speaker 2: in the the number of times last year, the seats

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Speaker 2: are not the most comfortable, so they're not good places

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Speaker 2: to sort of set. They're quite good so that it

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Speaker 2: gets your new way. So I mean, people just have

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Speaker 2: to tolerate sitting for hours waiting for care, and quite

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Speaker 2: often that's a the terran. Hopefully, I mean, the federal

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Speaker 2: government is looking at these urgent care centers, so hopefully

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Speaker 2: this will be available sooner and we'll provide an alternatives

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Speaker 2: for people who do seek the sort of care to

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Speaker 2: go and get attention.

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Speaker 1: How far off are we from those emergency care centers?

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Speaker 2: Not sure? I have to ask the Chief Minister. Yeah sure,

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Speaker 2: Now I will.

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Speaker 1: Try and follow that up. Well, doctor Robert Parker, I

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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: My pleasure. Kad good to talk to.

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Speaker 1: Thank you you two