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Grampians Health acute operations director Ben Kelly has confirmed the code yellow across the Ballarat health service was in response to managing COVID-19 outbreaks at Ballarat Base Hospital.
Mr Kelly said two non-COVID-19, non-respiratory wards had been put into quarantine after patients had tested positive to the virus. One was on Wednesday while another patient, in a separate ward, tested positive on Thursday morning.
Mr Kelly said both patients had been moved to the COVID-19 ward and other patients from these wards were being closely monitored.
The quarantines puts pressure on hospital beds, coupled with demand from people presenting to the hospital's emergency department.
Code yellow is an internal emergency call across the Grampians Health Service in Ballarat, predominantly for reallocation of staff.
As of Thursday 10.30am, Grampians Health was treating 17 patients with COVID-19 in Ballarat Base Hospital and this includes one patient in the intensive care unit.
A further 32 patients are being closely monitored under the quarantine conditions.
Mr Kelly reassured people staff were doing a "fantastic job" under the circumstances and the community could remain confident in the health system as it continued to manage the COVID-19 outbreak.
Anyone who needs medical care can still access care. People are asked to seek other care, unless extremely urgent, rather than presenting to the emergency department.
EARLIER
Growing pressure on the emergency department as well as handling COVID-19 patients has forced Ballarat Base Hospital to declare a code yellow and discourage non-urgent patients from attending the emergency department.
In a statement late on Thursday, Grampians Health issued the advice that it would prioritise urgent cases as pressure continued to grow.
The Courier has previously reported that numbers presenting at the ED have now climbed back to pre-COVID levels and are at all time highs.
The combination of factors also hit the hospital in January when Victorian health officials declared a state-wide pandemic code brown that included Ballarat Base Hospital.
That directive was triggered by the combined and crippling pressures created by wide-scale staff shortages across the state's health system and record-high COVID-hospitalisations and involved reconfiguring resources to meet urgent needs and redistributing COVID cases between hospitals.
But the latest declaration appears to be centred around pressure on the emergency department and the need for non-urgent patients to find other alternatives for care.
"We urge members of our community to carefully consider your health care needs," the statement from Grampians Health read.
"The Code Yellow means we will focus staffing on the most urgent areas of care and service delivery. We will still be able to maintain care for those who need it and for our existing patients.
"If you are unwell, we advise discussion with your GP as soon as possible in order to avoid the need to attend the hospital emergency department. This will help us care for those who most need emergency support and potentially a hospital bed."
Visitor guidelines and times will continue as per current rules but Grampians Health warned this could change as the circumstances develop.
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