Hospital system in ‘cycle of crisis’

TASMANIAN hospital staff have spoken of the “exhausting” nature of their work in a report highlighting an “unending cycle of crisis” within the public hospital system nationally.

The Australian Medical Association said urgent reforms to funding arrangements were needed to fix what was described as a steady and sustained decline of hospital performance.

The report said the hospital crisis was already in full swing in every state and territory long before Covid-19 arrived on the country’s shores.

A Tasmanian member of the AMA explained the constant battle they faced in treating patients in stretched emergency departments.

“There are shifts where I have to attend three Category 2 (emergency) patients, all still on their ambulance stretchers, unable to be offloaded due to a lack of space in the (emergency department) or elsewhere,’’ they wrote.

“It’s not unusual to see six, eight, 10 ambulances parked outside, all waiting to hand over their patients.

“The wider hospital does not have bed capacity. It is exhausting.”

While access block is a common theme, transitioning patients out of hospital had also emerged as a serious issue.

“Patients requiring transition to a nursing home or to appropriate disability accommodation ... are staying much longer in an acute hospital setting than is medically necessary,’’ another Tasmanian hospital worker wrote.

“This results in bed block, which then clogs up wards like orthopaedics, general medicine, rehab beds, the stroke unit.”

Another who worked in the emergency department of a rural hospital said many patients were sent there from nursing homes, because there were not enough nurses at the home to care for them.

The AMA’s report painted a picture of a public hospital system where there were fewer hospital beds, overcrowded emergency departments and longer waits for elective surgery.

Hospitals were full and there were not enough doctors and nurses, while stories of deaths, deterioration and delayed care were becoming commonplace.

The solution was change the way hospitals were funded, rather than focusing on activity and volume, to a partnership based on community demand and timeliness of treatment.

AMA president, Dr Omar Khorshid, said the report had been sent to the Prime Minister and every state and territory leader.