Michaela Meade
Resources will be prioritised and health services will be supported across metropolitan Melbourne, including at Northern Health in Epping, as the state government announced a code brown.
According to the government, a code brown allows health services to implement changes including configuring services to free up more staff, such as the delivery of outpatient services outside the hospital, and the rapid offload of ambulance patients at emergency departments to get paramedics back on the road as soon as possible.
Hospitals may also choose to redeploy staff to work in areas of the highest clinical priority.
It comes as the state’s health services have been put under pressure because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement to the Northern Health Facebook page, the organisation said the code brown was expected to be in place for four to six weeks.
“The pandemic code brown is intended to support health services and prioritise resources so that those who need it most, can continue to receive care,” the organisation said in the post.
“At Northern Health, we are taking every step to ensure we continue to provide high quality care to our patients and community.”
Northern Health said it thanked staff for “stepping up and adapting” for the duration of the code brown.
The organisation also said it thanked the community for supporting the healthcare workers by “keeping our emergency department for emergencies only”.
Acting Health Minister James Merlino said the code brown would assist the healthcare workers and services that are under strain from”record numbers” of COVID-19 patients.
“Our health services will have to make some hard decisions over the next few weeks to manage increasing demand and I thank every single one of them for making the tough calls necessary to help as many Victorians as they can,” Mr Merlino said.
