A shortage of vacant sub-acute beds in Tasmania, including aged care beds, is leaving Royal Hobart Hospital administrators with no option other than to cancel surgeries to free up beds for incoming patients.
“Lifesaving surgery is being cancelled due to a lack of inpatient beds, ambulances are ramping, and the emergency department has been overcrowded for days," said Australian Medical Association Tasmania spokesperson Dr Michael Lumsden Steel.
“On any given day, the RHH emergency department will care for around 200 patients, with 30-40% requiring admission into the hospital.
“The only control we currently have over admission beds is via elective surgery, and we all know that the term elective is a misnomer.
“Today alone, we already have over 30 patients’ bed-blocked in the emergency department (including EMU) waiting for an inpatient bed, and we haven’t even hit flu season.
"Right now, the state government needs to open more beds wherever it can in the Hobart Private, aged care, or HITH to move sub-acute and non-acute patients out of the hospital beds required for critically ill patients today.
“The public needs to help by working with the hospital to find suitable alternative accommodation for their loved ones who no longer require acute care but still require ongoing nursing and allied health care. That accommodation may be in an aged care home, in the family’s home with support provided by the HITH team or community nursing, or in a community hospital for a short period while other accommodation closer to home can be found."
Late last year, we wrote that the Acting Chief Executive, Hospitals South, Dr Stephen Ayre, had written to patients asking them to accept a “lower-preferred nursing home” if a bed becomes available “and then transferring to your preferred home when available."
Tasmania is not the only state with hospital patients ready to be discharged but unable to leave hospital due to the lack of available aged care beds. The situation is also being experienced elsewhere around the country, including in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.
