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The AMA's Dr. Robert Parker on the Code Yellow triggered at Royal Darwin Hospital · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, yesterday on the show you heard us speak at
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  Speaker 1: lengths about the situation that our Northern Territory hospitals are
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  Speaker 1: in right now. We now know that a code yellow
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  Speaker 1: has been called for the Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospitals
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  Speaker 1: due to a peak in hospital capacity as a result
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  Speaker 1: of both COVID nineteen and non COVID related demand.
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  Speaker 2: Now joining us on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Is doctor Robert Parker, the head of the AMA here
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, doctor Parker.
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  Speaker 3: Morning again, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Now what we don't usually have you on two days
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  Speaker 1: in a row, but we know that it's been a
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  Speaker 1: really serious time for our health system, particularly our hospitals,
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Parker. Is this call of a code yellow the
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  Speaker 1: right call or should it have been a Code brown?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Katie, basically the code yellow is the code bround
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  Speaker 3: for all dale In Hospital. So what it is is
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  Speaker 3: the code yellow is a code brown situation. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: cove brown would involve the whole of the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: hospitals and they're very sad. Taylor yesterday about one of
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  Speaker 3: my colleagues who hopes to catch COVID so you can
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  Speaker 3: get a ten day break actually smell of Springs, so
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  Speaker 3: you know, Alice Springs isn't exactly the same situation. But
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  Speaker 3: they haven't got the code yellow yet by the sound
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  Speaker 3: of it. So what effectively is the code yellow although
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  Speaker 3: and is like a localized coat brown.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, is it going to make any change, do
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  Speaker 2: you think, doctor Parker?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's the way health system adapts. I mean, it's
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  Speaker 3: a visible I think state of alertness or preparedness that
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  Speaker 3: the hospital has to relate to. So it does make
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  Speaker 3: a difference because the hospital can has the power I
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  Speaker 3: think to do things such as further canceling elective surgery
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  Speaker 3: and switching resources around to you know, switching wards around,
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  Speaker 3: switching resourses around the cape. But it's just like a
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  Speaker 3: formalize it's a formalized recognition of the crisis that the
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  Speaker 3: hospital's in.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, doctor Parker, both you and the Nurse's Federation,
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  Speaker 1: the IMA and the Nurse's Federation really went out on
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  Speaker 1: a limb yesterday, you know, talking about the stress that
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  Speaker 1: our healthcare professionals are under and the stress right around
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  Speaker 1: the territory within our hospitals. Was there any interaction with
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  Speaker 1: the government. Do you anticipate that there's going to be
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  Speaker 1: any improvement in this space.
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  Speaker 3: Well, unfortunately, again there's a range of reasons, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And again I think what's affecting the territory has been
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  Speaker 3: very evident in other places, you know, and you said,
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  Speaker 3: well the ambulance of officers now in New South Wales
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  Speaker 3: are very angry about situations. So I mean one of
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  Speaker 3: the problems of the territories we haven't got. I mean
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  Speaker 3: a lot of our health work as are transient there
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  Speaker 3: sort of you know, coming to the territory fild and leaving,
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  Speaker 3: which further complicates our ability to have I suppose a
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  Speaker 3: reserve workforce who may be able to be called up
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  Speaker 3: to assist, and that puts further pressure on the staffing
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  Speaker 3: and the exhaustion of staff GEPT.
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  Speaker 2: Are we at crisis or is this manageable?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it is crisis point. I mean the code yellow
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  Speaker 3: is a declaration of christis point in the top end
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  Speaker 3: hospitals in ryald Aalen Barmeson. So it is actually a
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  Speaker 3: declaration of crisis. But the crisis is being managed by
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  Speaker 3: the hospital executive and by the Again, the hero is
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  Speaker 3: the collisions here. Our collisions are working very hard, nothing
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  Speaker 3: exhausted to keep the place work going.
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  Speaker 1: They most certainly are, and I know I try to
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  Speaker 1: say it each time we've got you on. I certainly
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  Speaker 1: said it to Cath yesterday, but we really appreciate the
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  Speaker 1: work that all of our healthcare professionals do, from our doctors, nurses,
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  Speaker 1: cleaners at the hospital, absolutely everyone, and I know that
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  Speaker 1: it's such a tough time at the moment. Kath Hatcher
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  Speaker 1: had told us on the show yesterday as well that
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  Speaker 1: even at Royal Darwin Hospital, about three wards currently filled
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  Speaker 1: with COVID patients. Rob, do you see there being any
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  Speaker 1: sort of you know, any I guess Spye at any
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  Speaker 1: time soon.
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  Speaker 3: Well, again, the wave is moving through as it has
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  Speaker 3: in other states, so there will we will be on
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  Speaker 3: the down curve. But when that is, it's hard to estimate.
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  Speaker 3: And given again the vulnerability and the living conditions, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: you know, one of the unfortunately, with the living conditions
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  Speaker 3: in most insist communities where you've got a lot of
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  Speaker 3: overcrowding in substandard housing, there's no better breeding ground for
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  Speaker 3: COVID than that. So in many ways, the social and
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  Speaker 3: environmental factors affecting COVID have encouraged to spread in the
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  Speaker 3: territory which is why am SAND and the AMA have
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  Speaker 3: been calling for much higher levels of vaccination in those
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  Speaker 3: communities exactly for that reason. And I mean, it's certainly
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  Speaker 3: what am sand and may have been calling for has
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  Speaker 3: unfortunately come to pass where you know, it to spread
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  Speaker 3: like wildfire indigenous communities. So you know, unfortunately, you know
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  Speaker 3: there may be more of an In fact, I was
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  Speaker 3: actually talking to a colleague in the state the other
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  Speaker 3: day is good with maths, and he said that if
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  Speaker 3: the territory with an independent country that have the highest
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  Speaker 3: prevalence rate of COVID anywhere in the world at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: so you know, it's a pretty sad state. But it
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  Speaker 3: reflex the issues that you know that the AM Scent
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  Speaker 3: and the AM have been going on about for years now.
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  Speaker 3: You know about the potential impact of COVID within the territory,
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  Speaker 3: are particular conditions that it didn't encourage to.
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  Speaker 1: Spread and rob that's one of the things that you know,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of listeners are sort of asking at this
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  Speaker 1: point is we've known that this is coming for a while,
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  Speaker 1: but it doesn't seem as though there's been enough preparatory
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  Speaker 1: work from the government's perspectives.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the preparatory work is vaccination. The more people vaccinated,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, they won't stop people getting COVID, but it
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  Speaker 3: makes the health impact a lot less and giving a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the problem is we want you know, obviously,
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  Speaker 3: where we don't want people to catch COVID, we do.
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  Speaker 3: We want them to be basically at home dealing with
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  Speaker 3: it rather than being in hospital. But am SAND and
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  Speaker 3: the AMAY have you been saying that because of the
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  Speaker 3: thirty percent of the territory's populations of indigenous, a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the indigenous population has got much higher rates of co
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  Speaker 3: morbid illness compared to other sectors of the population. So
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  Speaker 3: when they catch COVID and they're not vaccinated, they're much
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  Speaker 3: more likely to have very serious of consequences, which uses
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  Speaker 3: up hospital beds. So that's why you know, the OMA
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  Speaker 3: and am SET were very much pushing for this ninety
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  Speaker 3: five percent vaccination rating community exactly for that reason. So
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  Speaker 3: when the COVID wave hit as inevitably, did it meant
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  Speaker 3: people could go suffer at home rather than they admitted
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  Speaker 3: to hospital.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Dr Parker, in terms of looking forward, how hard
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  Speaker 1: do you think it's going to be for our system
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  Speaker 1: to bounce back and get things like elective surgery and
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  Speaker 1: also some of those specialist outpatient services back underway. You know,
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  Speaker 1: when when this COVID peak does pass, is it going
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  Speaker 1: to be relatively easy or are we going to then
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  Speaker 1: see other ramifications of.
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  Speaker 2: This for a while.
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  Speaker 3: We need significant injections of Cromwell cash as the government
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  Speaker 3: is saying they you know, they can't they can't do
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  Speaker 3: a cash base because of their current best budget situations.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, the common world is obviously the potential
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  Speaker 3: savior with this, with it with a significant cash flash
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  Speaker 3: to try and get the elective way lists going and
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  Speaker 3: and get out of health services recovering in the territory.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm going it goes back again to the letter
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  Speaker 3: I wrote to mister Hunt a couple of years ago
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  Speaker 3: pointing out the territory hospitals for two to three times
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  Speaker 3: are busy at other hospitals in Australia before the Cavid epidemic.
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  Speaker 3: So again that's why I'm very keen to get this
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  Speaker 3: potential Q and A going with the candidates, see how
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  Speaker 3: committed they are to getting their leaders to put putting
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  Speaker 3: cash into the territory to to try and get the
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  Speaker 3: characterory health system back on track again.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I believe that that the Prime Minister and
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  Speaker 1: also the Opposition leader Anthony Albanezi a both in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory tomorrow. We're hoping to have them both on
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  Speaker 1: the show at some point, so we will also ask
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  Speaker 1: them about it.
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  Speaker 3: Dr Parker, Yeah, I mean, really, what is their commitment
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  Speaker 3: because you know there's two lines, there's two line ball
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  Speaker 3: seats which could decide the election. So I'd be very
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  Speaker 3: interested to hear what their commitment to health is, not
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  Speaker 3: just the blah blah about the common Wealth condutional what
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  Speaker 3: are they actually going to do for the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: in terms of trying to remedy our very significant sell situations.
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  Speaker 3: I look forward to whatever answers you can get out
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  Speaker 3: of them to that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we'll wait and see doctor Robert Parker, the head
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  Speaker 1: of the AMA here in the Northern Territory, the Australian
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  Speaker 1: Medical Association. We really appreciate your time over the last
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  Speaker 1: couple of days and really laying it all out for
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  Speaker 1: us as to how things are going in territory hospitals
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, Katie, good luck. We're getting Elbow and scomo tomorrow.
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  Speaker 3: Hope you do it well?
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  Speaker 2: See how we go. Thank you,