A steep rise in influenza cases across the Northern Territory is exacerbating ongoing staff and bed shortages at hospitals, with hundreds hospitalised and patients being flown in from remote communities for treatment.
Data from NT Health shows the territory has nearly doubled its recent flu records, with 3,210 cases recorded so far this year — up from 1,878 in 2019.
More than 1,000 of those cases have been reported in the past month.
It's a concerning trend that is dumping more pressure on the NT's already strained health system, with some units so busy that patients have at times been left waiting in beds in corridors.
That's according to Dr Stephen Gourley, the NT chair of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).
"When the hospital gets very full, we try our best to find people places to be and they're not always in the most ideal places."
Wait times 'rising' as nurses call for more staff
There has been a nationwide rise in flu-like illnesses, with more than 144,000 flu cases recorded around Australia so far this year.
The Royal Darwin Hospital has 367 beds and the Alice Springs Hospital has 183 beds, according to the NT government website.
Dr Gourley said emergency departments were "under the pump — and probably would be for the foreseeable future".
This year, more than 700 flu patients have been admitted to hospital in the NT, compared with just five patients in 2021; 45 in 2020; 218 in 2019 and 454 in 2018.
That amounts to nearly all hospitalisations recorded over the past four years combined.
But Dr Gourley said the squeeze in ED wasn't solely flu-related.
He said it was also due to COVID-19 cases and a backlog of patients with chronic health conditions left untreated during the pandemic.
"Waiting times are much longer than they used to be," he said, adding it could be "hours" for some patients.
"If you're critically unwell, you'll get seen instantly. But if you're not, you'll have to wait."
The Territory's growing spike in flu cases has also highlighted chronic staffing issues at NT hospitals.
Cath Hatcher, secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation's NT branch, said nurses "desperately" wanted more staff to help ease the workload.
When the flu turns into something more
Although most people who contract the flu can recover on their own at home, others can suffer serious complications.
"If you've got a chronic illness like diabetes or asthma, or you're older than 65 or pregnant, [you] can also have some troubles with the flu," Dr Gourley said.
Complications can include ear infections, sinus infections or bad pneumonia, he said.
In some cases, the result can be deadly.
Three people have died with the flu in the NT this season.
With a large Indigenous population facing disproportionately high rates of chronic disease, the NT is particularly vulnerable to the worst health outcomes of influenza.
Remote patients evacuated to Darwin
This year, flu patients have been medically evacuated from remote communities to the Royal Darwin Hospital, according to Sinon Cooney, chief executive of the Katherine West Health Board.
He said this year's flu season in the territory had been significantly more severe than previous seasons, even those before COVID-19.
"Flu has really hit hard in the Northern Territory, which seems to be more of a concern for us than it has been in other jurisdictions," he said.
"We've had a few people who have ended up in hospital needing quite significant additional support to manage flu."
Mr Cooney said a couple of patients have "ended up in ICU, which is obviously super concerning".
He said the next challenge for health authorities was to rapidly boost flu vaccination rates in a population fatigued by COVID-19.
Calls grow for free flu jabs in the NT
In response to the territory's rising cases, Dr Robert Parker, Australian Medical Association of the NT (AMA NT) president, has renewed calls for the NT government to offer free flu vaccines.
"It would have been an advantage to have free immunisations as every other state has given," he said.
"[That would] encourage people to get the vaccine — so if they do get the flu it reduces their burden of illness and the impact on the hospital — but possibly also [reduce] the population risk."
At the moment, only vulnerable Territorians, including pregnant women and all Aboriginal people over the age of six months, are able to get the vaccine for free.
