Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) is currently experiencing an unexpected peak in demand for emergency care.

To ensure we continue to provide the best care to our patients, we have had to reschedule some non-urgent elective surgery to allow for more urgent medical patients to be admitted.

The types of procedures that have been rescheduled include non-urgent surgery such as knee arthroscopy. Urgent and emergency surgery will continue as normal.

We acknowledge the disruption to people’s plans that rescheduling can cause and we sincerely apologise for this. RDH staff are working hard to try to minimise the impact of rescheduling on patients and their families.

Affected patients will be contacted as soon as possible to have their surgery rescheduled and will remain at the top of the elective surgery wait list. Patients with concerns or questions about their elective surgery are asked to phone 8922 8888 during business hours.

Those with non-emergency health needs are encouraged to visit their GP or after-hours urgent care clinic. For emergencies, please call 000 or go to the Emergency Department. 

Patient safety remains our top priority and we will continue to provide the best patient centred care possible in these periods of high demand.

The situation will continue to be monitored while the peak in demand continues.

We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time.

Media contact: Rickie Abraham 0419 818 414