Code brown stress bypasses Mansfield

MANSFIELD District Hospital (MDH) has avoided much of the stress felt across metropolitan Melbourne and larger regional hospitals following the recent announcement of a code brown. A statewide emergency code brown was called at Victorian public hospitals in mid January amid a flurry of COVID–19 admissions from the prevailing Omicron wave. Innumerable health care staff were being furloughed due to exposure or infection. So the measure, typically implemented for something like a bushfire, was brought in to try to relieve pressure on the health system. Code browns enable hospitals to alter or cancel staff leave and postpone elective surgery and less urgent services. All metropolitan and six regional hospitals in Victoria were included in the initial announcement, with Northeast Health declaring a code brown for Wangaratta Hospital just a few days later. With Mansfield residents periodically requiring services at Wangaratta, it was anticipated that MDH may experience a flow on effect. But thankfully, MDH chief executive officer, Cameron Butler, has reported otherwise. "We haven't been affected here in terms of reducing our services," said Mr Butler. "Knowing that Northeast Health was on code brown, we tried to do the right thing by them and minimise any transfers where possible. "However, in emergency situations, they were still receiving our patients." Mr Butler said there was a possibility that elective surgery patients may have had surgery postponed, but otherwise, Mansfield had been impacted very little if at all. "It seems like we are over the worst of it for now, and numbers do seem to be coming down," he said. "But we're always mindful – irrespective of code browns – of the workforce pressures we all have and that it doesn't take much to be effected if staff are furloughed. "So we're trying to work together to minimise that potential impact."