Fears as emergency gridlock hits Royal Hobart Hospital
AMBULANCES have lined the ramp to the Royal Hobart Hospital’s emergency department as the hospital struggles with demand and unions warn of potential flu tragedy.
Tasmania
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AMBULANCES have been lined up outside the Royal Hobart Hospital’s emergency department as the hospital struggles with significant demand, with health unions warning of a potential tragedy when flu season hits.
In a statement on Monday, management said the hospital had been escalated to level four — the highest level of its operating system — after days of increased demand and a limited number of patients being discharged.
On Monday afternoon, ambulances filled the parking bay and the ramp leading to the emergency department, with 50 patients in the department just after 10am, including 26 admitted patients waiting for beds.
Health and Community Services Union state secretary Tim Jacobson said the issues came after days of ambulance ramping, with Ambulance Tasmania sending out at least three urgent requests for overtime to paramedics over the past week.
He said in one case last week a call for help to a life-threatening priority one case came through while all southern Tasmanian crews were on other jobs, meaning an immediate response was impossible.
Mr Jacobson said an ambulance was dispatched shortly after, but it was not best practice to run out of crews to respond to emergencies.
On the same day another lower priority patient waited more than eight hours to be seen by paramedics.
Mr Jacobson said staff were concerned that heading into winter there would be no additional resources for Ambulance Tasmania or the emergency department.
“There’s absolutely no doubt there could be tragic consequences if there is an additional peak in demand associated with the flu season,” he said.
“Once we get into winter this year we’re really concerned about what might happen.”
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian branch secretary Emily Shepherd said her main concern was capacity, and how the emergency department would cope with presentations over winter.
“Any flu season is challenging — even without a significant influenza outbreak like we had last year the winter period is challenging,” Ms Shepherd said.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson was on Monday spruiking the beginning of recruitment for six more full-time staff members for the Ambulance Tasmania State Operations Centre, and recent recruitment of 22 paramedic interns.
Mr Ferguson said the Health Service’s winter plan contained a range of actions to support the health system in managing increased demand over winter, and a new 22-bed ward at the repatriation hospital would be opened in July.
The winter plan has been broadly welcomed by the nurses’ union, which has asked the Department of Health and Human Services for more information on the number of additional staff to be recruited over winter to deal with demand.
The level four escalation is expected to be reviewed on Tuesday morning.
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