Lengthy wait times have eased at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital after some patients were forced to wait for 12 hours to see a doctor.
There were 100 patients seeking treatment at the hospital's emergency department on Monday night, leading to warnings for families to find alternative care when possible.
As of 7am on Tuesday, there were only 14 patients seeking emergency care, with expected wait times dropping from 12 hours to about four hours.
It was not rising COVID-19 cases driving the emergency department demand, but patients presenting with gastro-like symptoms and fevers, Royal Children's Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald said.
Ms McDonald said there were also workforce issues, with 120 staff members off each day because of COVID.
"Our workforce is getting really tired," she told ABC Radio Melbourne on Tuesday morning.
"They are working extremely hard. I think there's 1600 staff unavailable to work across the whole health system at the moment. It is extremely challenging with COVID."
Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan said the health department was working closely with the Royal Children's and other hospitals to manage the demand.
"The cumulative impact that the pandemic has had, particularly on our health-care workforce, is putting some additional pressures at this point of the year," Ms Allan told reporters on Tuesday.
"There is work that is always ongoing to support the great work of our hospitals and our health-care workers."
Ms McDonald reminded families to seek out a GP, the nurse-on-call service or the Victorian virtual emergency department if their child's condition was not urgent.
"We would never turn anybody away," she said.
"If people come to our emergency department, we will treat them in clinical urgency.
"It does, unfortunately, mean that when we have the challenges like last night, some people who are less clinically urgent will have to wait a long time
"Yesterday was about just asking parents to think about before you pop in the car ... is there an alternative that you might be able to use."
Some elective surgeries were postponed on Monday because of the emergency department demand, but Ms McDonald said the hospital would look to reschedule those operations as soon as possible.
