Bass Coast Health (BCH) will keep a Code Yellow internal emergency status in place for now, as the health service continues to be impacted by a shortage of staff due to illness.
Many staff have been furloughed due to being affected by COVID-19, Influenza, gastro, colds and other illnesses that are sweeping through the community and other areas, as BCH staff come from far and wide.
In recent times, BCH has had up to 60 staff on personal leave on any given day, either sick themselves or to care for their own ill family. Approximately 20 staff a day have been ill with COVID and more with Influenza.
BCH CEO Jan Child said the combination of these illnesses occurring simultaneously was unfortunate but one the health service was managing on a shift by shift basis to ensure the community still received the best possible care.
“BCH is not the only health service to be impacted by a shortage of staff due to illness. Most health services across the nation are experiencing workforce issues as a result of the COVID Pandemic. This is made more difficult by the high instance of the virus in our community and the significant incidences of Influenza and other illness," she said.
“If anything, the prevalence of these illnesses in our community is a reminder of the importance of everyone getting as many COVID vaccinations as they are eligible for, as well as their flu vaccination. Vaccination has been scientifically proven to be reduce the severity of illness should you be unfortunate to contract it, as well as reduce the likelihood of you transmitting the viruses to other people as often you do not know you are carrying COVID and are infectious.”
BCH called a Code Yellow in early May and this status remains as a signal to our staff and to our community that we are in extraordinary times, Ms Child said.
“It’s a reminder that people should only call the Ambulance if they are truly unwell. People should look to attend their GP for routine health matters and should absolutely access BCH services when they need to,” she said.
As part of the Code Yellow, BCH has transitioned away from Testing and Vaccination and this change brought staff back into core services.
Bed numbers in the inpatient areas have remained capped with staff deployed to areas such as the ED, to ensure BCH can look after its sickest patients, 24/7.
“We review a number of metrics daily to make sure we are prioritising our resources to the highest risk, highest need areas, and we are truly grateful to the BCH staff who continue to go above and beyond, like never before, to maintain our services,” she said.
Some new services that were planned to commence have been put on hold, and other service expansion such as new surgery, has been halted until the worst of this current wave of COVID and Influenza has passed.
Ms Child praised the BCH team for their tremendous work during the two years of the COVID Pandemic and particularly right now. Many staff are working extra shifts, 12 hour shifts and double shifts to cover rosters impacted by ill staff.
Ms Child said it had been a particularly tough time for BCH staff to respond to the increased demand and service growth. The demand on our Emergency Department has increased significantly in the past two years. From January to March 2020, 1,919 patients presented (triaged as most unwell) compared with 2,749 patients in January – March 2022; a 43.2% increase. The acuity of patients has increased. The most unwell patients accounted for 62% of patients compared with 43.4% in 2020.
Within Bass Coast Health's inpatient wards there has been a 15.2% increase in inpatient separations from current financial year, 2021-2022, compared with financial year 2019-2020.
Despite the Code Yellow, Ms Child is extremely optimistic.
“I have no doubt that these current unprecedented times will improve and that sometime in the coming weeks, our Code Yellow will be called down,” she said.
“Every day our staff prioritise their work to see the sickest patients. Every day we bring on new staff. Every day we see acts of kindness from our community to our staff. And every day we invest in the support to our staff to support them during these times of change. We are still very short staffed but we are working proactively with our TAFE Colleges and our Universities to grow more staff locally to future proof the years ahead.
“This is probably the most difficult time we have ever experienced in the modern healthcare world. I sometimes watch social media and see all the armchair critics who wouldn’t last a day in the shoes of our brilliant staff, and I am reminded that Bass Coast Health is an extraordinary service because of its extraordinary people. Please know our staff are doing their best in really trying times, and be kind and patient as they do their expert work.”