Major Melbourne hospitals on bypass overnight

FIRST with NEIL MITCHELL

It’s been revealed five major Melbourne hospitals were placed on diversion overnight.

The Neil Mitchell Program has been told the Footscray, Western Sunshine, Northern, Austin and Royal Melbourne hospitals were not taking patients at stages overnight.

The Northern and The Austin were still on bypass this morning.

Neil Mitchell has been told the diversions were in part because the Northern Hospital is operating at reduced capacity, due to staff isolating after possible COVID-19 exposure.

When asked about the diversions at a press conference, Premier Daniel Andrews said some health workers are off work due to coronavirus but he’s “confident” the plans in place to backfill those staff are adequate.

“Winter is always a very challenging time for our health system whether it be through flu or … a whole range of other circumstances,” he said.

“We have got a number of health staff that are furloughed because they might be a close contact, we have got a number of health staff that have tested positive.”

Ambulance Victoria says last night’s diversion from hospitals was not unusual, and the hospitals were not all on bypass at the same time.

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