Whistleblowers say understaffing at the Northern Territory's busiest hospital is forcing nurses to take on unsafe patient loads, and some are teaching themselves medical procedures via YouTube.
Royal Darwin Hospital staff have voiced concerns about patient loads , hygiene conditions and a lack of staff training, which they say affects patient care . Nurses have labelled the working conditions as 'scary', telling the ABC staff are using YouTube and ChatGPT to teach themselves procedures.
Understaffing at the Northern Territory's busiest hospital is forcing nurses to teach themselves procedures via YouTube and calculate medication dosages using ChatGPT while containers full of urine and faeces pile up around them, whistleblowers have revealed. Staff at Royal Darwin Hospital have spoken out about working conditions, saying patient loads are 'scary' and that poor infection control and a lack of training and resources are affecting patient care. Staff at Royal Darwin Hospital say some of the situations they've faced on the job have left them feeling scared.
for RDH and Palmerston Regional Hospital — the third time this year the internal response measure has been put in place — and last week the nursing union said many staff had beenThe nurses' identities are being kept anonymous due to fears of workplace retribution. Their names have been changed, but their accounts were crosschecked by the ABC.
Hospital workers have told the ABC their patient loads have often gone from 1:3 to 1:8, with one recalling having seven patients under her careSally, who has been working as a nurse at RDH for more than two years, said the situation had left her 'honestly really scared'. 'I was very on edge because if something takes a turn, then I'm going to be stuck with one person, and if something takes a turn with another patient, then I can't be in two places at once,' she said.
Experienced nurse George, who has worked in hospitals in other capital cities, said the high patient load at RDH meant his ward was constantly looking after high-acuity patients that he had not been trained to care for. 'We don't know how to look after these people, but we're forced to look after these people,' he said. 'We're constantly doubting ourselves — it's not just physically exhausting, it's mentally exhausting.'
In a statement regarding the code yellow on Friday, NT Health said RDH ' a high number of very sick patients that require acute care and treatment, in addition to an increase in people presenting to the Emergency Department'. 'This has resulted in extended wait times and the cancellation of some elective surgeries to increase capacity for emergency surgeries,' they said.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation secretary Heidi Crisp was recently a patient at RDH and said the hospital was so full that she was placed in a paediatric ward. Adult patients have reported being placed in the paediatric ward at RDH, which they say affected their level of care.'It was really clear that the nurses were not comfortable with the outliers and were providing unsafe care,' she said. While Ms Crisp said she believed there was no risk to underage patients, who were in a different room, the nurses on duty were not experienced with performing certain tasks, such as administering pain medication.
RDH's over-capacity issue is often more acute in the emergency department, where double-bunking — where more than one patient is held in a single cubicle — has consistently been an issue.
According to the Australian Medical Association’s 2026 Public Hospital Report Card, only 40 per cent of urgent ED presentations at NT hospitals were seen In a statement, an NT Health spokesperson said the emergency department at RDH 'consistently experiences periods of high demand, during which time double-bunking can occur'.'NT Health takes staffing matters very seriously and we are continually working with and engaging with our staff to address any concerns they may have,' they said. The spokesperson said a new 32-bed unit, set to open later this year, would improve capacity, but George and Sally both questioned who was going to staff the ward given the already serious staffing shortfalls. NT Health said an ongoing campaign had recruited '202 nurses and midwives since September 2025, with a further 173 candidates found suitable and awaiting processing'.
George said RDH also had a shortage of senior nurses available to assist less experienced staff, and as a result, he had seen some nurses teaching themselves procedures.'I've come onto the ward and witnessed junior nurses on YouTube looking up how to do blood and how to put in cannulas, and using ChatGPT to calculate medications,' he said. Chantelle, who began as a graduate nurse at RDH last year, said she sometimes lacked the experience to deal with certain situations, but had nowhere to turn for advice. 'I asked the grad team, I asked the ward educator and I didn't get any help, to the point where when I went home, I was in tears because I was so upset about it,' she said. 'I felt I had failed my patients because I didn't give them the care they deserved, but I didn't know what care to give them.' Other nurses said they had similar experiences, including Sally, who said she had been caring for a patient who had deteriorated quickly, but when she raised concerns, she was brushed off by senior staff.'My patient was unresponsive, so clearly not fine.
An NT Health spokesperson said clinical debriefs were routinely conducted to support 'team reflection and learning'. 'NT Health takes staffing matters very seriously and we are continually working with and engaging with our staff to address any concerns they may have,' they said.
Another facet of the staffing and capacity issues raised by RDH workers was unsanitary conditions on the wards.'Nurses are leaving bottles full of urine and pans full of faeces ,' he said 'It just sits in piles there, it smells, it's disgusting, it's unsanitary and patients see that, all the faeces and piss sitting next to the nursing station. That's embarrassing.' George also said that because RDH was often over capacity, it was difficult to separate patients with infectious diseases, like scabies, COVID-19, and influenza. 'Because there's not enough beds, we're putting infectious patients in the same bays, same rooms, as patients that are not infectious,' he said.'Staff are getting sick and having to take time off.' George said often the only thing separating patients with infectious diseases was a paper-thin blue curtain.
According to national standards set out by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare, scabies and influenza patients, while in the 'infectious period', should beWhile the capacity issues at RDH have been exacerbated by staff shortages, healthcare workers told the ABC a big part of the problem was that RDH’s ageing infrastructure was no longer fit for purpose. Chantelle said issues as simple as patient beds not fitting easily through doorways were a daily problem.'When you've got another patient in the bed, how bad does that look that you're like, 'So sorry. I have to push you up against the f***ing wall'.''It's so old. The roof should not be leaking all the time.' NT Health chief executive Chris Hosking previously called for a new hospital to be built following the ceiling collapse, saying 'this old hospital’s just about had its day'.
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