Royal Hobart Hospital’s triage tents taken for a test run

The new external triage tents outside the Royal Hobart Hospital's emergency department have been put through their paces in preparation for any Covid-19 community transmission.

THE external triage area set up outside the Royal Hobart Hospital has undergone testing, with the areas expected to be used for patient screening if there is any Covid-19 community transmission.

Between 10am and 6pm, patients were screened for Covid-19 in the triage area before they could be directed to another area of the hospital.

Royal Hobart Hospital medical services executive director Stephen Ayre said it matched protocols interstate.

“The RHH will test the area to ensure operational functionality and staff familiarisation with the [external triage areas],” Dr Ayre said.

The testing of external triage areas will not delay patient presentation to the emergency department.

“People should not be concerned if they are directed to the external triage area for screening prior to entering the emergency department,” Dr Ayre said.

The instalment of the areas means paramedics need to unload patients at the emergency department and then park a street away from the hospital.

Hospital’s tent triage site under fire

THE decision to set up an outdoor triage area where ambulances would usually ramp has been met with criticism, with the union saying the arrangement is an inconvenience as it heads towards the busy Christmas-New Year period.

The area was installed outside the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department last week to provide more room for assessment and screenings of patients.

The area is planned to be used only if community transmission increased pressure on the hospital.

In the meantime, paramedics have been left parking ambulances a street away on Argyle Street – something the health and community services union said was not ideal.

“Now this is in place, paramedics have to stay with patients for longer,” HACSU assistant secretary Robbie Moore said.

“It hasn’t addressed the issue of patients being able to be released to the emergency department and then paramedics being able to go where they’re required.”

The outdoor triage tent area at the RHH emergency department entry.

When the ambulance reaches the hospital, one paramedic must get out and wait with the patient at the hospital, while the other parks the ambulance.

“It’s still been the same when it comes to ambulances being ramped, it’s just predominantly in a different area,” Mr Moore said.

“The measures haven’t changed that in any way.”

Mr Moore said the actual tents themselves had created problems.

“When the weather is above certain temperatures, there’s still a safety risk,” Mr Moore said.

“And the equipment being made available to them it’s more in line with what the hospital has, it means staff have to receive new training.

“With Christmas coming up, New Year’s Eve we’re very concerned about that knowing there’s high demand on the emergency department.”

Mr Moore said ramping was particularly bad last week.

“When ambulances are ramped, they’re not able to attend to urgent and critical cases, and non-urgent cases, like people having a broken leg or serious fall,” Mr Moore said.

“We hear so many cases of people being left for hours.”

The Department of Health was contacted for comment.

Paramedic graduates brace for tough initiation

MARLI Oliver and Sean Horton have chosen a demanding time to join Ambulance Tasmania.

With borders about to reopen and deaths from Covid-19 predicted, the two graduate paramedics are among 19 who have just completed a six-week induction and this weekend are on the road.

Ms Oliver, of Devonport, worked in hospitality before studying at the University of Tasmania straight after college.

“I met paramedics in the coffee shop and I loved their approach to life,” she said.

“They are at the front line and they were always compassionate and respectful.”

She believes her training placed her in good stead to handle Covid.

“I believe we’re well-equipped going into this situation,” Ms Oliver said.

She is pleased that female paramedics are treated equally with their male counterparts.

“They’re at the same level and are strong, independent and can carry their own and pride themselves on that.”

Like Ms Oliver, Sean Horton, 38, of Claremont, who grew up at New Norfolk and spent 10 years in the Army as an aircraft mechanic, is anxious about Covid but no more so than anyone else.

“It will affect us but I hope the community will help us to help them,” Mr Horton said.

He is happy to be able to now work more with people than machines.

“I’d heard people say that people with dementia remember more about their relationships with others than anything else,” he said.

“I haven’t seen any major trauma but we’ll be at the coalface and I’m just happy there’s government funding for a large intake of paramedics.”

The father-of-one served in two peace-keeping missions to East Timor and studied at Victoria University.

Graduate paramedics Sean Horton and Marli Oliver. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Ambulance Tasmania chief executive Joe Acker is confident the 19 new graduate recruits were up to the task ahead of them, including dealing with Covid.

“We’re doing everything we can to be prepared and we have been able to learn from our colleagues in New South Wales and Victoria,” Mr Acker said.

“I’m confident in our team and the Department of Health has done an amazing job so far.

“The Department has procured hundreds of ventilators and we have a new critical care retrieval ambulance and 12 extra ambulances that have been refurbished and fully equipped instead of being retired.

“Most Covid patients will be cared for at home but we will be there if their condition deteriorates.”

Ambulance Tasmania CEO Joe Acker is well qualified to deal with any Covid outbreak having dealt with thousands of cases a day during his time in emergency operations in Vancouver last year.

Three additional community paramedics will be employed in each of the Southern, Northern and North-Western regions in sedans that are able to attend call outs from patients, freeing up ambulances.

He said a memorandum of understanding had been signed with St John Ambulance to support emergency management and Covid-related activities and extra professional cleaners had been contracted to clean ambulances.

Mr Acker, who came to Tasmania from Canada in February this year, is well qualified to deal with any Covid outbreak.

“I worked in emergency operations in Vancouver from April 2020 until February this year and we had up to 3000 Covid cases a day and hundreds of deaths pre-vaccines,” he said.

He is delighted Ambulance Tasmania had been able to hire more recruits.

As well as the 19 graduates, 11 paramedics have relocated to Tasmania from interstate and overseas.

“The Premier announced in his state-of-the-state address that we would get 24 new full-time equivalents including 12 in Hobart and 12 in Launceston as well as 24 in regional areas funded after the election,” Mr Acker said.

“With the borders re-opening we asked if we could bring the hiring forward and that is what we have done.

“We will also hire 10 more experienced paramedics in January and up to 20 more graduates in February.”

Police rush baby to hospital amid ambulance shortage

Premier Peter Gutwein is confident the state’s emergency services are prepared to handle the state border reopening next week.

His comments come amid union claims Tasmania’s medical system is buckling under pressure, with police officers forced to rush an 18-month-old baby to hospital this week when no ambulance vehicles were available anywhere near Hobart.

The Glenorchy mother called triple-0 around 11pm on Tuesday, but the nearest available ambulance was over an hour away.

Instead, police officers had to respond to the emergency callout, rushing the baby to Royal Hobart Hospital in a police car.

Police Association of Tasmania president Colin Riley said this was unacceptable, and proof that Tasmania’s medical system was not prepared for the border reopening on December 15.

Police Association of Tasmania president Colin Riley said Tuesday’s incident was unacceptable. Picture: Kenji Sato

Mr Riley said he’d been told by paramedics that understaffing, a high number of callouts and ambulance ramping was what led to Tuesday night’s incident.

Mr Riley said police officers were not medical professionals, and should not be expected to be the only ones attending a medical emergency.

“When our members respond to those critical incidents where you need a paramedic, we’re not trained, we’re not equipped and it is stressful,” Mr Riley said.

“This is just not a one off. In the course of a career, you’ll be exposed to numerous occasions of this which leaves a lasting impact, which is a contributing reason why 9.5% of our workforce is on open workers compensation claims.”

Premier Peter Gutwein. Picture: Chris Kidd

Mr Gutwein said there would always be peaks in demand when it came to emergency callouts.

“My understanding is that incident occurred in a period of high demand, obviously the circumstances aren’t ideal but what I think this is is a demonstration of our emergency services working together,” Mr Gutwein said.

“There have been times when we have had significant lockdowns in this state … the commissioner of police has always managed to get the job done and I expect moving forward the job will get done.”

Shadow health minister Anita Dow said Tuesday’s incident raised some serious concerns about whether Tasmania’s health system was ready for a border reopening.

“Today we heard the disturbing story of the state of our health system, with police having to respond to an unresponsive child on Tuesday night in Glenorchy due to the closest ambulance being an hour away in Oatlands,” Ms Dow said.

“This is completely unacceptable at any time, let alone six days out from borders reopening.”

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said Tuesday’s incident was more evidence of the government’s under-resourcing of the health system.

“Every parent has the right to expect that when they call an ambulance for their sick child, they can rely on one turning up. In the Liberals’ Tasmania this is clearly not the case, which is terrible,” Ms Woodruff said.

“Healthcare workers have been consistently sounding the alarm. They have repeatedly told the Liberals to fix the understaffing, under-resourcing, and capacity issues in the health system, because an increasing number of patients will be at risk. This is exactly what has happened.

“The Gutwein government is responsible for ensuring our healthcare system can cope with demand now, and especially after the border reopens. “