RHH alert levels help fast response: minister

HEALTH Minister Michael Ferguson says he cannot predict when the Royal Hobart Hospital will be able to downgrade from operating at level three of its four-level escalation plan.

The hospital has been operating at level three or above since mid-June.

Mr Ferguson said although it was not ideal to have the hospital operating at such a high level, it enabled an appropriate response to increased demand.

“I don’t know how long a particular escalation level will be held for, but these are clinical decisions made by our expert doctors and nurses. It’s in their hands now, based on the protocol the Government has endorsed,” Mr Ferguson said.

“Even though we don’t like to see escalation at a high level for too long, the escalation system is designed to get patient flow moving, to open up additional beds, and that’s exactly what the Government is doing.”

Mr Ferguson said there was no pressure from the Government or hospital chiefs to raise or lower the escalation level.

“The public should be confident ... that the escalation system is not manipulated by anybody, not by Government, not by unions,” he said.

“I’m not defensive about the escalation system. We put it in place. It was what the reports to the previous government and our Government called for, so that the hospital could have whole-of-hospital solutions to problems that manifest in the Emergency Department.”

State Labor leader Rebecca White said the continued high level of escalation was unsustainable.

“The pressure on staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital has been relentless,” she said.

“It’s not sustainable for the hospital to be constantly at high and very high levels of escalation. It’s not fair on staff or patients.”

At the weekend, 379 patients presented to the hospital, with 125 admitted to wards.