Health officials in the Northern Territory continue to assess the impact of a weekend warehouse fire in Darwin that destroyed crucial hospital supplies, with early estimates putting the damage bill at about $30 million.
The blaze has left hospitals in Darwin, Katherine and Palmerston with about three days' worth of some items including theatre consumables, disposable sheets and gloves but officials say there will be no impact on services or patient care.
Supplies of most items are also kept in other facilities.
Some emergency equipment has been lost but the warehouse, which has been leased by the government for the past four years, was not used to store any drugs or other pharmaceutical products.
Fire crews continued to battle the remains of the blaze on Monday as well as assess the structural integrity of the building.
NT Health called a code brown over the weekend to spark a system-wide response which also included assessments of what supplies were available at other sites and what might need to be sourced from interstate.
Nursing and emergency medicine director Kylee St George said all services, including theatre procedures, would be uninterrupted.
She said there would be a full system review of what stock is on hand and what is available and where the vulnerabilities are.
"So we have until Wednesday to put in contingency plans on ensuring our current position that no patient care or staff ability to perform their duties will be affected."
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said some fresh supplies would arrive on Wednesday and work was continuing to identify what gaps might remain.
"At this stage, it's business as usual within the Top End hospitals but that code brown acknowledges there has been a significant event that could impact hospitals over the coming days," Ms Fyles said.
The chief minister said there was no information to suggest there would be issues or delays with restocking, though checks were being made to determine if sourcing some specialised equipment could take longer.
"Northern Territory Health participates in national forums and meetings around supply chains, so if we do need to lean into the other states and territories, I'm confident that they will support us," Ms Fyles said.
"That's what we're ascertaining over the next 24 to 48 hours. What exactly was destroyed, what can we get, what might be problematic and how we can work through that."
The chief minister said the full impact and cost of the blaze was still to be determined along with the cause.
