Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital are currently under a code yellow, which the government said is due to an increase in aged care patients requiring ongoing acute care, with the code yellow ordered amid political bickering over the proposed new $60 million aged care facility.

The alert was issued Tuesday morning, stating that 44 aged care patients occupying beds at Royal Darwin Hospital and in Palmerston “because there are no beds available in residential aged care”.

The “bed block” issue will see “a range of measures” taken to “ease pressure and improve patient flow and discharges”, but traditionally sees elective surgeries and other procedures cancelled, the discharging of patients early, and moving patients around through the system.

Last week, the Federal Govern

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