Parents at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital were told to seek care elsewhere with wait times blowing up to 12 hours as the hospital buckles under “unprecedented demand” and major staff shortages.
The head of Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital has revealed what went wrong as waiting times blew out to 12 hours. Bernadette McDonald, CEO of the hospital, has finally provided an explanation of what caused the emergency.
She claimed that although Royal Children’s Hospital had been struggling for some time, along with the rest of the healthcare system, staffing issues and rising demand finally reached a breaking point on Monday. She additionally stated that because to Covid, 120 employees are currently absent from work every day, either as positive cases or close contacts.
Despite the possibility of a repeat of Monday night’s incident, Ms. McDonald expressed optimism that staffing problems would abate after the nation had passed the top of the most recent Covid wave.
According to the health department, the overall number of Covid patients in Victorian hospitals has surged thrice since October 19.
