A letter delivered to some Royal Hobart Hospital patients advising them of ways to speed up their discharge has caused distress and anger. The health department says the letter was only aimed at giving patients information but the nurses union says it should have been handled more sensitively.
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00:00 In the Royal Hobart Hospital for cancer treatment, a letter delivered with her evening meal last
00:07 night made Shel Bird feel pretty angry.
00:10 I felt like it was get out as quick as you can.
00:14 If I'm going to be quite blunt, that's how I took the first reading.
00:20 The letter told patients, "This is a very busy time at the Royal Hobart Hospital and
00:26 unfortunately there are many people in the emergency department waiting for an inpatient
00:30 bed.
00:31 Now that you are here, we need your help."
00:34 And suggested ways to make their discharge from hospital more efficient, including by
00:39 moving to the New Norfolk District Hospital or Repat Campus if you no longer need acute
00:44 care, completing your hospital stay in one of our rural hospital beds closer to your
00:49 community or accepting one of your lower-preferenced nursing homes and then transferring to your
00:55 preferred home.
00:56 The nurses' union says the letter distressed several patients.
01:00 They are appropriate discharge destinations but that discharge destination has to be determined
01:05 in conjunction with the patient in a conversation, not through a letter delivered to their tray
01:10 table.
01:11 It's an awful way for a health system to interact with people who are really very unwell and
01:19 need a lot of care and support.
01:20 The health department says the letter was aimed at improving discharge planning and
01:25 was not asking patients to leave the hospital.
01:28 These clinicians were trying to do the right thing, gather as much information as they
01:31 could to deal with people as speedily and efficiently as they could as well.
01:35 Hospitals around Tasmania are facing increasing demand for acute beds.
01:40 While at the same time a lack of aged care beds and suitable community health services
01:45 means many patients can't leave hospital when they should.
01:48 Yesterday's letter is another visible sign of that dilemma which can't be quickly or
01:53 easily resolved.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]