Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) is experiencing significantly higher than usual demand for emergency services over the holiday period. There have been up to 190 Emergency Department attendances per day, compared to an average of 150 per day last year.
As a consequence, more emergency surgery has had to be performed and admissions to acute beds have also increased significantly.
This has resulted in the need to reschedule non-urgent elective surgery for around 20 patients.
At the time of preadmission all elective surgery patients are told their operation may need to be deferred due to emergency activity at the Hospital. However, the rescheduling of surgery is always regrettable. RDH understands the personal inconvenience this can cause and has apologised to those patients affected.
RDH is liaising with the patients affected and re-booking has already been arranged in a number of these cases. RDH is also looking at ways that some of these procedures may be expedited.
Media contact: Cameron Jackson, 0401 116 144
