New nurses recruited into WA’s health system ‘denied entry into State’ amid code yellow emergencies

Two of Perth’s largest hospitals were today plunged into internal emergencies, declaring code yellows that left them unable to admit non-urgent patients. The latest code yellows inside emergency departments at Fiona Stanley and Sir Charles Gairdner hospitals come as at least 20 new nurses recruited into WA’s health system were denied entry into the State, according to the Australian Nurses Federation. ANF State secretary Mark Olson said the new recruits, currently living in the eastern States, have had their G2G applications denied by WA Police over the past fortnight. “I find it an incredible situation that this Government somehow values football teams above the health of the community and certainly above the needs of our public health system and our private health system,” he said. Mr Olson also claimed that some nurses, already employed in WA, were forced to “beg” for denied G2G passes to be overturned, having visited coronavirus-ridden states prior to lockdowns. A State Government spokeswoman said WA’s Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson can provide G2G application support letters for interstate nurses taking up positions in the public health system. Mr Olson warned more “deaths and tragedies” would happen inside the health system as it grappled with clinical staff shortages, leading to code yellows being declared inside major hospitals multiple times a week. Premier Mark McGowan downplayed the code yellows being frequently issued across the hospital system, stating the decelerations were merely a “management tool”. “What happens then is patients are diverted to other hospitals,” he said. “So that's why we have a system approach to these things and we have a large number of hospitals across Perth and across the State so that we can move patients around should some hospitals get quite full. “Every state's going through this at the moment. Every state has emergency departments very full.” A North Metropolitan Health Service spokesman said WA’s public hospitals “are currently experiencing unprecedented demand.” It comes just weeks after The West Australian revealed the State had clocked 5246 total ramping hours in June. The huge spike coincided with the announcement that St John Ambulance would face a parliamentary inquiry examining whether “alternative service delivery models” would “better meet the needs of the community”. Mr Olson hit back, declaring bed shortages were to blame for record ramping levels, not the ambulance service.