ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins said the troubling revelations from the inquiry once again highlight issues of overwhelmed emergency departments (EDs) and access to mental health services, which continue to pose enormous risks across Tasmania, Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Judkins said: “Access block (when a hospital is full and has no beds available for admissions); and all of the severe associated problems, including the increased risk of patient death, have been well known and of major concern for some time in Tasmanian hospitals.”
“Despite the Access Solutions meeting held earlier this year in Tasmania to try and alleviate the problems, an unacceptable situation has only gotten worse. The latest data from the bi-annual Access Block Snapshot Survey shows Tasmanian hospitals are under increasing strain that means more patients are waiting longer,” said Dr Judkins.
“As today’s release of the draft Productivity Commission report into mental health also shows, accessing mental health care remains an enormous issue confronting our communities, hospitals and healthcare systems.
“A lack of mental health services in our communities and healthcare systems only serves to compound access block, while also contributing to and exacerbating the distress of some of our most vulnerable patients.”
ACEM Tasmania Faculty Chair Dr Marielle Ruigrok said a statewide solution, which acknowledged the individual needs of various sites, while also addressing systemic issues, was desperately needed.
“We need to be able to get our patients where they need to be, when they need to be there, and clearly the measures implemented to date haven’t worked,” said Dr Ruigrok.
“The most recent results from the Access Block Snapshot Survey show that the proportion of patients in Tasmanian EDs that are waiting for an inpatient bed continues to increase, far outpacing the national average.
“We’ll be raising these issues, highlighting just how bad the situation has become, during an upcoming meeting with the Tasmanian Health Minister.”
Background
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