Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT chair of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Stephen Gourley says staffing recruitment strategies need to be reformed as stress on hospitals rises

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NT chair of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Stephen Gourley says staffing recruitment strategies need to be reformed as stress on hospitals rises · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We certainly know that staffing and bed shortages in territory
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: hospitals are reportedly being put under increasing strain as influenza
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: cases rise to record levels and people from remote communities
• 0:12
  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
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: stories about people having to be sort of housed in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the corridors, I guess you'd say, is something that is
• 0:33
  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
• 0:52
  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
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: lower mbers around the eighteen hundred mark back in twenty nineteen.
• 1:04
  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
• 1:18
  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
• 1:38
  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
• 2:47
  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.
• 3:00
  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
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: either as completed their care and get discharged so we
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: can free up in space and the patient area and
• 4:01
  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
• 5:04
  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
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: week and Bill Yeh, the Shadow Health Minister, had said
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: that around fourteen hundred staff had been lost from the
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: health system in the Northern Territory, and we know that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: that was sort of across the board, not just in
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: one location, but across the board when you talk about
• 7:02
  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.
• 7:09
  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
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: just very tired from the pandemic, not taking their leaves
• 7:39
  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
• 8:02
  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
• 8:48
  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
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: are a little bit unsure about whether to go to
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: the emergency department. We are trying to keep emergency departments
• 9:06
  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
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: it become there is a free service health direct which
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: you can finally get advice from one of the senior
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: nurses there and that's one eight hundred zero double two,
• 9:22
  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.
• 9:27
  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
• 9:34
  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,