Transforming Health backs down on bed closures and QEH-Hampstead merger in latest reforms
A BACKDOWN on plans to merge Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre into the QE Hospital and 62 beds being shifted from central Adelaide hospitals to the north are the latest Transforming Health reforms.
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A BACKDOWN on the controversial plan to merge Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre into The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and 62 beds being shifted from central Adelaide hospitals to the north are the latest moves in the Transforming Health reforms.
Patients with brain and spinal injuries will stay at the Hampstead facility for the time being while a new plan is devised following severe criticism.
SA Health officials say the loss of beds from the Royal Adelaide Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital will not result in a net loss to the system as more beds are opened at the Lyell McEwin and Modbury hospitals in the north.
However the doctors’ union warn the changes “will put patients at risk and overwhelm clinicians”.
SA Health interim chief executive Vickie Kaminski released three consultation papers for staff and unions to discuss until December 23:
RECONFIGURATION of acute inpatient beds at the RAH for patients awaiting a care placement, resulting in closure of 27 beds affecting 63 staff;
RECONFIGURATION of beds as clinical activity is shifted from central Adelaide hospitals to the north, resulting in closure of 35 beds at RAH and the QEH affecting 43 staff;
CHANGES to plans to transfer rehabilitation services from Hampstead to the QEH.
The move to shift Hampstead’s services triggered fierce criticism that patients would be worse off, prompting an increase in spending on QEH facilities to $22.5 million.
However, Ms Kaminski said officials have now gone back to the drawing board and there will now be a “staged process for the transition”.
“While general rehabilitation services will continue to move as planned, we are consulting on specialised rehabilitation for brain injury and spinal cord injuries, which will likely remain at Hampstead until the next phase,” Ms Kaminski said.
“One of the key initiatives of Transforming Health is to integrate rehabilitation into the acute hospital setting, which improves patient outcomes and recovery time by allowing rehabilitation to start as soon as possible.”
The closure of RAH and QEH beds comes as services are transferred north – orthopedics, renal and vascular services moved last month and, by February, some ENT, breast, upper GI, urology, cardiology, stroke, medical oncology, haematology and endocrinology services will move.
“These changes will ensure that patients in Adelaide’s north will benefit from improved care closer to home,” Ms Kaminski said.
However, SA Salaried Medical Officers Association senior industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said: “We have seen nothing to demonstrate any efficiencies to justify the closure of those beds in the QEH and RAH.
“Moving them north will put patients in those hospitals at risk and overwhelm clinicians – the flow on effect will increase workloads and in our view is dangerous.”
Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said: “Clearly, Transforming Health is completely chaotic and is unravelling” and called for independent verification that demand for the beds being closed has been removed.