Canberra's health system has been under intense pressure in recent weeks, and authorities say the situation isn't exclusive to the ACT.
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A Canberra Health Services spokeswoman said many hospitals across the country had been dealing with capacity issues for a few weeks. She said eight pediatric beds at Canberra Hospital had been converted into adult beds because of capacity issues.
"It is anticipated this will only be required until [Wednesday] morning," she said.
Calvary Public Hospital Bruce general manager Robin Haberecht said the hospital had experienced a "a number of instances of above-average emergency department presentations" through May.
The health services spokeswoman said the capacity pressures could be a flow-on effect of Covid, but Australian Medical Association ACT president Dr Antonio Di Dio said they were probably down to issues that has burdened Canberra's health system for close to a decade.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said "across the country, health systems are experiencing an in increase in demand and capacity pressures".
She said the impact of Covid on health systems was a topic regularly discussed at health ministers' meetings and between state and territory departments.
"This [increase in demand and capacity pressures] is being felt in different areas, but an increase in emergency surgery and mental health presentations appears to be a common theme," she said.
The Health Services spokeswoman the capacity issues could have arisen because "some patients may have delayed their treatment during 2020".
She said Canberra Hospital executives were working through the capacity issues to manage patient flow throughout the hospital.
Ms Stephen-Smith said fewer people presented to the emergency department in the ACT last year, and "we heard anecdotally through [general practitioners] and other healthcare providers that some patients were cancelling or postponing appointments".
But, she said it was "difficult to say at this stage if the current increase in demand is directly related to this".
"It is likely we will continue to experience the impacts of COVID-19 on our health system for some time," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"Like all states and territories, we would welcome any additional funding from the Commonwealth government to support this recovery."
It was expected that health ministers across the country would by Wednesday get state and territory health data that might go some way to explaining the capacity issues.
"Collecting data from all states and territories will provide a clearer snapshot on the impacts of COVID-19 and more detail on the issues currently being experienced across the country," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"This data may also help states and territories better understand potential future pressure points."
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But the medical association's Dr Di Dio anticipated any such data would probably just reflect what authorities already knew: there weren't enough inpatient beds in Canberra, and especially not enough inpatient services for psychiatry patients.
"That's been the case for close to a decade now," Dr Di Dio said.
"It's an extraordinarily simple calculation based upon the population of Canberra [having] almost doubled over time when there's been very little increase in the number of beds in Canberra hospitals.
Dr Di Dio said there was a temporary increase in demand that happened every winter across Australia, but the key point was that health systems should have enough capacity to cope with occasional surges.
"If the general, average, typical, normal Canberra health service was big enough to have enough bed capacity to service its population 365 days of the year, when these big surges in demand happened from time to time, they would be better able to cope," Dr Di Dio said.
The Health Services spokeswoman said staff anticipated winter pressures might lead to continuing high demand, and they would respond to that appropriately to ensure patients received safe and timely care.
Know more? Email c.morgan@canberratimes.com.au.
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