Albury Wodonga Health has been forced to declare a Code Yellow incident after staff struggled to treat hundreds of patients in emergency departments at the weekend.
Key points:
Code Yellow is an internal emergency that can reduce the capacity for hospitals to function normally
More than 200 people are presenting to its emergency departments each day
Some elective surgeries have been rescheduled and ambulance waiting times are being impacted
An incident management team has been established in response to the more than 200 people presenting to Albury and Wodonga emergency departments per day since Saturday.
Chief operating officer Emma Poland said 227 people presented on Monday alone.
“People are unwell and needing emergency treatment,” she said.
“It’s really then about our capacity to see those patients in a timely way and then, when necessary, admit them into our acute hospitals.”
Ms Poland said the department was reporting a spike in category 2 patients, which are people presenting with conditions like chest pain or possible stroke and requiring an urgent care response within 10 minutes of arrival.
Read more: Albury Wodonga Health declares Code Yellow over long weekend patient surge