BCH sounds the alarm over staff shortages

Staff shortages are at emergency levels at Bass Coast Health, which declared a Code Yellow at the end of last week.

The Code Yellow signals an internal emergency relating to staffing shortfalls.

According to CEO Jan Child, staffing shortfalls have been a constant feature of the pandemic and these shortfalls are now at a point that they are impacting Bass Coast Health’s ability to deliver all its services.

“Just a few weeks ago, the whole state was in a Code Brown situation because of increased demand and staffing shortfalls; This week, Bass Coast Health, along with a number of other Victorian Health Services, find themselves in a continued state where there are not enough staff to meet demand.

“Our staff have been magnificent throughout the pandemic. They have developed new services to ensure our community is vaccinated and tested; they have created capacity for our Covid patients to be cared for at home and in our hospital,” she said.

“They have continued to expand services such as Hospital in the Home, Cancer, Cardiology, and Outpatients, all with the aim of making sure our community can receive care closer to home.
“To achieve this, they have been picking up extra shifts for the past two years to fill vacancies across all areas.

“Unfortunately, 12-hour shifts and double shifts have become an all-too-common feature. We have had some luck recruiting excellent new staff but like all health services, there are simply not enough staff to meet our unprecedented demand.”

Ms Child said the decision to move to Code Yellow wasn’t taken lightly.

“Our staff are extremely fatigued, and we need to make sure we can support our staff to focus on safe, high-quality care in our key areas.”

Unlike the recent Code Brown where surgery was reduced, the Code Yellow will see all clinical services continue with surgery continuing as well.

“It is important that we continue our surgery to make sure patients can get their booked surgery completed,” Ms Child said.

“We know some people have had delays to their surgical care over the past two years and we are trying very hard to make sure we can keep surgery ticking along.

“We will also work hard to maintain our Maternity, Cancer, Emergency, Outpatients and Primary and Community services, knowing they are all much busier providing essential care every day.”

Ms Child said Bass Coast Health had already decreased the number of sub-acute beds from 16 to 10, and will now decrease the number of acute inpatient beds from 26 to 20.

In addition, short stay beds in the Emergency Department will decrease from 8 to 4.

Recruitment focus

“We have been relentlessly recruiting, with intensive recruitment efforts over the last 12 months, and we will continue to be proactive in this space and look at incentives and opportunities to grow our team,” Ms Child said.

“We need all types of staff: clinical and non-clinical. Nurses, doctors, allied health, cleaners, porters, engineers.

“We support and develop people well and there is rewarding work available for people with the right values, at our sites at Wonthaggi, San Remo and Cowes.

“Our staff are extraordinary and every day our staff make a difference. They have been wearing stifling PPE for more than two years; and they have been working longer and harder – above and beyond – to deliver care for their community.

“But they are also exhausted and we need to make sure they can take their breaks, and spend time with their own loved ones to rest and recover.”

Ms Child said while she understood that most of the community was “over Covid and have moved on”, the pandemic had not passed.

“We are still in the grip of Covid. We are still in the midst of looking after the community during a pandemic.

“We know our demand will continue to rise; and we recognise the hugely important role the Wonthaggi Hospital expansion and the Phillip Island Community Hospital will play in serving our local community over the coming years.

“The Code Yellow provides us with an opportunity for an intensive and focussed response to our very unusual circumstances, and is an important mechanism in keeping our focus on the provision of safe, high quality healthcare.”

She stressed the Code Yellow should not be a concern to patients and the community.

“If you are unwell, please continue to seek care; if you need our services, please continue to reach out.

“This Code Yellow process does not stop access to our essential services. All it does is provide a short pause for BCH in the currently frenetic and heightened pace, to allow us to re-prioritise our resources.

“We continue to be confident in our capacity to care, and we are well supported by our colleagues in the Department of Health, in other Gippsland and Metro Health Services, and by services such as Ambulance Victoria.

“We are part of an excellent health care system and it is the collaboration of our partners which will continue to hold us in good stead.”

People interested in joining the BCH team should email the Human Resources team: hr@basscoasthealth.org.au