Parliamentary inquiry heard Royal Hobart Hospital’s emergency department’s concerns for patient safety

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A parliamentary inquiry into ambulance ramping issues across the state has been given a glimpse of the pressures facing the hospitals' emergency departments. Over hours of hearings, the committee heard of staff burnout communication challenges and the pressures of bed block.

Transcript

00:00 Over his 13 years working in the emergency department, Royal Hobart Hospital nurse David

00:07 Pittaway has seen his fair share of colleagues quit.

00:11 The comments are, this is unsafe. I don't want to be here when, I don't want to front

00:18 a coroner's court.

00:20 Today he told a parliamentary inquiry the department was struggling to retain skilled

00:25 staff, who were burning out under increasing pressure. But he insists the ED is not responsible

00:32 for the ambulance ramping problem.

00:35 Please do not tinker with the emergency department. Ambulance Tasmania are not the problem. The

00:43 problem is flow out of the hospital.

00:47 That's often attributed to a lack of residential and aged care beds in the community. But the

00:53 committee heard there are beds available. And sometimes processes are the issue.

00:58 We just don't know where the beds are.

01:00 You mean the hospital doesn't know where they could discharge patients to?

01:04 The inquiry heard the communication is also a challenge. And nursing homes needed to be

01:10 given the right handovers from hospitals to care for their residents to stop them returning.

01:16 I've been struck by the number of elderly patients sent for the community to the Royal

01:21 Hobart Hospital, but also other public hospitals where they have been sent to that facility

01:27 in essence to die.

01:29 The committee also heard that around 50 long-term patients were recently discharged to residential

01:35 aged care or other similar facilities.

01:38 Mr Pitaway said while they may not have ended up in their place of choice, it did free up

01:43 beds in the hospital and ease the pressure on ED.

01:47 [SIREN]

01:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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