An increase in patients presenting at Canberra hospital emergency departments is putting pressure on a system already under strain from the effects of COVID, the ACT Health Minister has advised.
Emergency presentations have increased almost double what would typically be expected for this time of year, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told ABC radio.
"Where you normally would see an increase between January and March of between 15 and 20 per cent in presentations, we've actually seen an increase of around 30 per cent in presentations between those January figures and the March figures," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
She said one day recently saw a 30 per cent increase in presentations than on an average day last year.
Ms Stephen-Smith said Calvary Hospital was bringing in young staff to its emergency and intensive care units as part of an effort to tackle the combined pressure of increased demand and staff furlough.
"We know we are seeing some of that [same] impact as other jurisdictions, and around the world, that's been seen," she said.
"It's been really busy and so that's one of the reasons that we have to ensure that we can maintain our health emergency control centre team."
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With the ACT budget review handed down this week, Ms Stephen-Smith said more would likely be known on funding for emergency services soon.
"I don't want to preempt any announcements that the treasurer might make, but we have been continuously monitoring what our resourcing requirements are going to be both for that public health team and for our front-line health staff and also for our testing centers," she said.
While COVID testing had died down, ACT testing sites had also experienced an increase in presentations over the last week as COVID numbers had climbed back up in the ACT.
Ms Stephen-Smith said staff burnout was being experienced across the sector in the ACT.
"It's all of our staff, it's the nurses, the doctors, the allied health workers, and the support staff and the wards people," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"All has been extraordinarily busy over the last couple of years."
While it was unknown exactly what was driving the increased presentations to emergency, Ms Stephen-Smith said it would need to be taken into account as health services began planning for winter.
With the ACT largely avoiding the effects of influenza in recent years, health authorities will now look at potentially delivering flu vaccines at COVID clinics in an effort to prevent the predicted increase in cases as Australia scraps social-distancing measures.
