The peak body for emergency medicine in Australia has welcomed Tasmanian Health Minister Michael Ferguson's move to support emergency doctors’ call for solutions to issues confronting The Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH).
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and The Department of Health will hold an Access Block Solutions Meeting in June, bringing together key people, including consumers, clinicians, stakeholders and key decision makers, to bring about better patient care at RHH.
The agreement to hold a meeting follows discussions between ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins and Mr Ferguson after ACEM’s members and trainees – specialist emergency medicine doctors on the frontline in emergency departments – spoke out about patient care being compromised at the RHH.
The main cause of overcrowded emergency departments is the ongoing issue of admitted patients having to stay longer in the emergency department because there aren’t enough inpatient beds – commonly known as ‘access block’.
That is, patients with broken hips, suffering from strokes and chest pain, or who are experiencing a mental health crisis are unable to access beds on the wards of the hospital for their ongoing care, therefore spending unacceptably long periods in emergency departments. This is why most emergency departments struggle to manage the increasing workloads; hospitals are operating at or overcapacity the majority of the time, which ensures significant delays to care and this is borne out in emergency departments.
ACEM Tasmania Faculty Chair Dr Marielle Ruigrok said: “The community has a right to good emergency care and the emergency department needs the resources to be able to provide it. We still want patients with emergencies in their health to come to the emergency department and not be so frightened that they delay attendance or seek inappropriate care.
“The inpatient teams need to be able to have the resources to manage the flow of their patients as well as the clinical care. This includes having the right information in real time to know what is occurring and appropriate resources seven days a week to manage.”
ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins said: “ACEM has been outspoken about the need for action around the core issues of staffing levels and increased bed capacity in wards of all hospitals across Tasmania, regardless of what time of year it is.
“ACEM is mindful that creating capacity on the wards is partly about funding, but also about the adoption of effective, efficient and safe practices which have worked in other hospitals across the country. The health service needs to continue to look at models of care and patient flow which have been implemented across other parts of the country and see how they can impact the situation in Hobart. The key is creating inpatient hospital capacity through a combination of investing in more physical beds but also in innovative process which have worked in other hospitals.
“The answers lie outside the emergency department. Changes need to be made immediately and must include the Clinical leaders and Directors of inpatient units, including those in the sub-acute areas, to see what they can do to create capacity on the wards. Without their engagement, leadership and ideas, we will see more patients dying waiting for care.”
Background
While ACEM welcomed the release of the masterplan for the next stages of the ongoing redevelopment of the RHH, the emergency department must be rebuilt to be consistent with contemporary Australian emergency department standards.
ACEM is the peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for training emergency physicians and advancement of professional standards. www.acem.org.au
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