Covid staff shortage due to 12 hour wait at Royal Children’s Hospital

The Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital has asked sick children and their parents to seek care elsewhere as waiting times have increased to 12 hours per night.

Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald explained what led to the emergency.

She said RCH, like the rest of the healthcare system, had been struggling for some time, but staffing shortages and increased demand peaked on Monday.

She said about 120 employees are currently unable to work every day due to Covid – either due to a positive case or due to close contact.

“Those numbers have jumped with this latest surge COVID-19,” she said Todayadding that the hospital is also struggling to recruit new staff.

“Definitely staffing issues are contributing, otherwise we could open more beds, keep this flow, have the capacity to do that.”

Covid cases in Victoria have been steadily rising since the end of October.

There were 26,971 cases of Covid last week, up 21.4% from the previous week, according to the latest report from Chief Public Health Officer Brett Sutton on Friday.

Ms McDonald said the need for the emergency room hasn’t lessened, as it usually does after winter.

“It’s been a buildup. Last night was especially challenging in our ER, but what we’re experiencing is really high levels of visual acuity, really sick kids in our inpatient beds, so we don’t discharge as many patients each day as we do.” needed to keep up the flow of patients, she said.

“But we also see quite a few patients coming in who we would say are in the fourth and fifth categories, who can actually seek help in alternative places.”

More than 50 percent of the patients who arrived on Monday afternoon were triaged to the fourth or fifth level.

A statement released by the RCH shortly after 5 p.m. said waiting times for these “less seriously ill patients” could be more than 12 hours.

There were over 90 patients in the emergency room at the time.

Ms McDonald said the backlog was cleared overnight and it was “absolutely safe” to bring sick children to the hospital on Tuesday, but asked parents to consider whether they need the services of a specialized hospital that is dedicated to the “sickest of sick children.” . .

As of 11:30 Tuesday, emergency department status was “very busy”. There are three official levels: normal activity, very busy and very busy.

Ms McDonald said that, unfortunately, the situation on Monday evening could repeat itself, but she hoped that the country overcame the peak After the last wave of Covid, staffing problems will subside.

She said the entire healthcare system is under pressure and other hospitals treating adult patients have seen a significant increase in the number of Covid patients in addition to sick staff.

The total number of Covid patients in Victorian hospitals has tripled since October 19, according to the Department of Health.

At least seven elective surgeries scheduled at RCH for Tuesday have been postponed.

Originally published as Covid Staffing Shortage Due to 12 Hour Wait in Pediatric Emergency Department