Fed: Patients being treated in corridors: report

AAP General News (Australia)
04-22-2004
Fed: Patients being treated in corridors: report

By Alex Murdoch and Chris Herde

BRISBANE, April 22 AAP - Seriously ill patients were being treated in hospital corridors
because of ongoing bed shortages, a new report released today said.

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president Dr Ian Knox said claims by state
governments that the inundation of general practice patients into emergency wards after
the decline of bulk billing had caused the problem was a blatant lie to avoid addressing
the real issues caused by bed cuts.

"Significant reductions in this type of patient (GP), if they are capable of being
identified, will have only marginal impact on emergency department workloads," he said.

Dr Knox, launching a national report into emergency department overcrowding, said the
bed closures had resulted in hospital occupancy rates of 95 per cent, making it increasingly
difficult to find a bed for emergency patients requiring admission - causing a treatment
backlog.

He said bed shortages and treatment delays were a problem which had spread Australia-wide
three years ago.

"The solution to overcrowding is to reduce hospital occupancy below 85 per cent," Dr Knox said.

He said this could be achieved by determining the requirements for acute care beds
and the best practice for their management.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr David Molloy said the overcrowding
of hospitals was now beyond the power of the state governments to fix, suggesting the
time had come for the federal government to step in.

"We know that there's a problem when patients, who should be admitted to hospital,
are being treated in the corridors," he said.

A spokeswoman for federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said that while the minister
would view the report, the number of beds allocated to hospitals was a state government
issue.

"The federal government funds 50 per cent of all public hospitals, so we are definitely
doing our part," she said.

Dr Knox said in Brisbane alone almost 600 beds had been lost in the redevelopment of
the Royal Brisbane Hospital and the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

But Queensland Premier Peter Beattie labelled the claim "a lot of bunkum".

"It is simply medical politics, head in the sand approach where everybody takes a position
to protect vested interests but doesn't think about the patients," he told journalists.

"You go and ask anyone in the community who can access a GP or bulk billing and you'll
know exactly what the problem is."

He said the state government was spending millions to improve hospital services.

Mr Beattie said technology has ensured people spent less time in hospital.

"Beds are being reduced in hospitals across the world because patients spend less time
in them because of changes in anaesthetic and keyhole surgery - this is a trend around
the world," he said.

AAP am/sc/sco/de

KEYWORD: HOSPITAL NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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