BASS Coast Health (BCH) has lifted the Code Yellow that was in place to signal an internal emergency. 

The Code Yellow had been in effect since April 29 this year, due to staff falling ill or needing to care for sick family members. 

According to BCH, they also faced challenges in recruiting staff.

The situation resulted in many staff working double shifts and even 19 hour shifts to fill the void. 

At the same time, sicker patients were presenting, demand for hospital beds was high and wait times for emergency care were long. 

“All of this placed huge pressure across BCH, and whilst we actively moved staff to meet demand and maintain service continuity and care, we assessed that this ‘perfect storm’ created too much clinical risk, hence the Code,” BCH CEO Jan Child said. 

“I am really pleased to say that after more than eight weeks, our situation has improved and this has enabled us to stand down the Code Yellow.” 

The Code Yellow ended on Tuesday, June 28, as staffing pressures eased, although many staff are still impacted by COVID, Influenza and other conditions. 

“Of course, things are not completely back to normal. We are still experiencing our winter demand. There is still more sick leave than usual related to winter ailments. We still have roster vacancies. We are treating more COVID patients and experiencing more COVID exposures, and the risk of getting COVID or Influenza in the community remains high,” Ms Child said. 

For the short term, some surgical and medical beds at Wonthaggi Hospital will remain closed, and sub-acute service and medical/surgical beds remain integrated into one ward. 

Vaccination and testing staff have mostly all transitioned back to core services at BCH, and discussions with other health services have enabled the easier transfer of patients, who cannot be safely cared for at BCH due to their severity of illness. 

BCH’s emergency department, urgent care centre, acute ward, support services and cancer service will continue to be under more pressure than other areas.

The health service also assured that they had been successful in recruiting new staff and are still recruiting more. 

Any clinical staff interested in joining BCH are invited to visit their recruitment website, basscoasthealth.mercury.com.au and send their CV to hr@basscoasthealth.org.au