The news comes as Fairfax Media can reveal that most Melbourne hospitals did not follow the state's health emergency plan during the unprecedented outbreak last week, despite Health Minister Jill Hennessy likening its impact to 150 bombs going off across Melbourne. A leading emergency physician has called for hospitals to review their response to the emergency, following reports of potentially fatal ambulance delays, Ventolin shortages, and a queue of 18 ambulances at Sunshine Hospital during the disaster. Victoria chair of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Shyaman Menon,​ said it was unclear whether the Department of Health ordered hospitals to enact "Code Brown" plans, which are designed to create space and resources in a mass casualty emergency, and allow ambulances to offload patients quickly so they can return to the road. Dr Menon said while emergency department staff across Geelong and Melbourne seemed to do "fantastically well" at treating scores of patients on the night, some did not call Code Browns. In some cases, he said these hospitals seemed to do things consistent with a Code Brown, such as call in extra staff, and that it was unclear why they didn't formally call the code. "It will be interesting to know why they didn't call a Code Brown… Their response may not have been co-ordinated or adequate for what they had," he said.

While the Department of Health says it activated the State Health Emergency Response Plan on Monday about 8pm, and that "all hospitals quickly activated their emergency response systems", only three hospitals told Fairfax Media that they called a Code Brown consistent with the plan on Monday night. These hospitals were Geelong, which called one at 7pm, the Austin which called one at 10:10pm and St Vincent's which called one at 11:36pm. The Northern Hospital in Epping called one on Tuesday about 7:30am. The State Health Emergency Response Plan says: "When hospitals and health services respond to an external emergency, they will activate their Code Brown plan… Code Brown plans provide the additional capacity that hospitals need to receive an influx of patients." The plan also says: "Once notified of an incident, hospital Code Brown response plans will be activated as the whole health service prepares to manage an influx of patients." Dr Menon said he believed all hospital chief executives were notified about high demand on Monday night, and that it was left up to them as to whether they called Code Browns or not. He said Code Browns were important because many emergency departments worked at capacity during average weeks, so they have limited resources to be ready for a sudden surge of patients.