Last week’s health-focused state budget included a promise for up to 7000 new health workers, but there is concern the new investments will not make an impact soon enough.
“If we go into the winter, without people being honest about the state of our emergency department we will continue to see an exodus of staff and more and more emergency departments will start to fall over,” says Victorian faculty chair of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Dr Mya Cubitt.
A number of doctor groups say more needs to be done to retain existing nurses and doctors, including bonuses encouraging experienced staff to work in regional hospitals, or incentives to stay in emergency medicine.
The causes of emergency department overcrowding are well-known and long-running. It largely stems from a lack of beds in other parts of the hospital.
Staffing shortages across the health system are again key, and the pandemic has exacerbated this, as nurses have been recruited for roles that didn’t previously exist, including on COVID-19 wards. Border closures have disrupted the supply of international workers.
Meanwhile, some patients languish in hospital for weeks or months more than they should waiting for an aged care bed or disability support.
Emergency departments become the metaphorical dumping ground for patients unable to get help in the places they really need it.
The Australian Medical Association has been campaigning (unsuccessfully to date) ahead of the federal election to get major parties to agree to raise the Commonwealth funding for public hospitals to a 50-50 split with the states, a move they say would bring $20 billion to hospitals over four years.
Accounts that the critically ill are waiting too long for care in Victoria’s hospitals suggests we may need to reach for somewhat uncomfortable short-term solutions, as well as long-term reform.
As an example, patients who break a bone could be cared for by an orthopedic team even if their ward was full, rather than staying in the ED for two days, suggested emergency physician Dr Simon Judkins, as and other parts of the hospital take on some excess load.
“We don’t want to compromise care in the long term, but in a time of crisis solutions like that actually take the heat off the EDs and ambulance services,” he said.
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Things could get worse in Victoria’s emergency department before they get better
Source: Philippines Alive
