Bass Coast Health (BCH) has lifted the Code Yellow that was in place to signal an internal emergency.
The Code Yellow had been in effect since 29 April this year because of staff falling ill or needing to care for sick family members due to high incidences of COVID, Influenza, gastro and other ailments in the community. In addition, BCH faced challenges in recruiting staff, as did other health services across the nation.
The situation was resulting in many staff working double shifts and even 19 hour shifts to fill the void. At the same time, sicker patients were presenting, demand for hospital beds was high and wait times for emergency care were long.
“All of this placed huge pressure across BCH, and whilst we actively moved staff to meet demand and maintain service continuity and care, we assessed that this ‘perfect storm’ created too much clinical risk, hence the Code,” Bass Coast Health CEO Jan Child said.
“I am really pleased to say that after more than eight weeks, our situation has improved and this has enabled us to stand down the Code Yellow.”
The Code Yellow ended on Tuesday 28 June as staffing pressures eased, although many staff are still impacted by COVID, Influenza and other conditions.
“Of course, things are not completely back to normal. We are still experiencing our winter demand. There is still more sick leave than usual related to winter ailments. We still have roster vacancies. We are treating more COVID patients and experiencing more COVID exposures, and the risk of getting COVID or Influenza in the community remains high.
“But these pressures are likely to be with us for weeks and months, and the positive news is that our risk mitigation strategies have helped us find a better and more balanced ‘business as usual’.”
For the short term, some surgical and medical beds at Wonthaggi Hospital will remain closed, and sub-acute service and medical/surgical beds remain integrated into one ward.
Vaccination and testing staff have mostly all transitioned back to core services at BCH, and discussions with other health services have enabled the easier transfer of patients who cannot be safely cared for at BCH due to their severity of illness.
BCH’s Emergency Department, Urgent Care Centre, Acute Ward, Support Services and cancer service will continue to be under more pressure than other areas and BCH will continue to focus on prioritising support to these areas to ensure our care is optimal.
“Staffing levels and pressure on these service areas will be monitored closely and if required, area by area Code Yellows might be called from time to time to signal to all of BCH and our community that these areas need more support than usual and that there may be delays in those areas,” Ms Child said.
“Our efforts will continue to focus on caring for those people who are the sickest in the first instance.”
BCH has been successful in recruiting new staff and is still recruiting more. Any clinical staff interested in joining our team are invited to visit our recruitment website (https://basscoasthealth.mercury.com.au) and send their CV to hr@basscoasthealth.org.au
Our community members are encouraged to contact their GP, local pharmacist or Nurse on Call (1300 60 60 24) if their care needs are not urgent.
Ms Child paid tribute to BCH staff for their “extraordinary efforts over the past years”.
“The Pandemic has created challenging times across our community. I also know that there isn’t a better team of people to support our community through this Pandemic. The commitment, passion and above and beyond efforts of our staff have been significant, and we should all feel very proud to work in a service that has never lost sight of doing the best they can do, even in times of duress!” she said.