A formal emergency management structure has been put in place to make the best use of hospital resources as Victoria battles the global Omicron outbreak.
The state government announced on Tuesday it has implementing a Pandemic Code Brown at all public metropolitan and major regional hospitals from midday on Wednesday.
Under the code, health services can configure services to free up more staff, including 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 highest clinical priority.
A coordinated approach with Ambulance Victoria is part of the changes.
Health services and the health workforce will continue to have responsibility for clinical and operational decisions that affect patients and their communities.
The Department of Health will also establish a new Health Service Response Centre which will help hospitals coordinate patient flow, distribute activity and support decisions around service reconfiguration – such as suspending some activity or moving to home-based care.
The code is expected to last four to six weeks with health officials will monitor the situation to determine when it’s safe to begin winding down arrangements.
Acting Minister for Health James Merlino said front-line workers were caring for record numbers of coronavirus patients every day
“This is the best way to ensure our hospitals can continue to safely care for those that need it most.”
“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.”
The announcement comes after Western Health has advised only people with genuine emergencies to attend its emergency wards.
