00:00 We do see a large amount of trauma every single day presenting to all hospitals across Australia.
00:10 And there has been approximately a 20 percent increase in road fatalities through the end
00:18 of 2023. And latest statistics have demonstrated a steady rise to the back end of last year.
00:26 Now, the impact on that obviously is quite drastic and significant for those families
00:32 affected. But alongside the fatalities, there are many, many patients who are injured on
00:37 the roads, and then they require to be treated in the hospital.
00:41 Each hospital has a set number of intensive care unit beds. It has a set number of theatres.
00:49 And therefore, if there is more emergency work, more trauma to be done, then something
00:55 has to give. And often in these cases, it's the elective surgery in these hospitals that
01:00 gives.
01:01 Right. It's a really difficult one. I mean, how do you prioritise? I guess it's by what
01:07 is an emergency and life threatening.
01:09 Yeah, that's right. So all hospitals will have a structure to manage emergency demand.
01:16 But if the emergency demand increases, then eventually then other cases have to be cancelled.
01:23 And it's not unusual for us to have to cancel elective surgery in order to get the emergency
01:29 surgery done.
01:31 If somebody has a car accident, it's not a single -- it's often not a single surgery
01:36 that's required. A patient may have multiple injuries, such as head injuries, neck injuries,
01:43 abdominal injuries and limb injuries. And they will all require time in the operating
01:49 theatre and time in the intensive care unit. These patients can often be in theatre all
01:53 day, go to the intensive care unit for another 24 hours or 48 hours, and then return back
02:00 to theatre for further surgery.
02:04 I mean, I'm wondering what the answers are here, because obviously what you do and what
02:09 you want to do is save people's lives. I mean, are there centres in Australia where it's
02:15 just for elective surgery? I guess you can't split the expertise like that, can you?
02:21 It is. Most hospitals will take a mix. Some hospitals will take more elective surgeries
02:26 than they do trauma. But on the whole, most hospitals have a mix of both.
02:31 What does it impact? Does this all have the increase in road collisions and the number
02:36 of people being admitted with emergency trauma have on your workload, your and your colleagues'
02:42 workloads?
02:43 Well, the workload is fairly intense. What we have to do is ensure that we have enough
02:51 staff. It's certainly been particularly difficult over the Christmas period. In my own unit
02:56 in Brisbane, we have a bed base of 52 beds, and we had in excess of 26 patients above
03:10 that 52 bed base who were boarded out across the hospital. And that's at a time period
03:15 when we are not carrying out a huge amount of elective work. There is just a large volume
03:19 of trauma going to and being managed in public hospitals.
03:25 And while you can call it elective surgery, things like a hip replacement or a knee replacement,
03:30 and yes, it can be delayed perhaps by a week or two weeks, that can have implications for
03:37 the person who is waiting for that surgery, can't it?
03:41 Yeah, well, all patients have their condition categorised, and those who are in significant
03:49 pain and significant difficulty may need to be reassessed if there is delay for their
03:53 treatment.
03:54 I was going to ask you what you would like to see, what would you call for if you could?
03:59 I guess one of the things is that we're all much safer on the roads, that we all take
04:03 more care.
04:04 Well, I think that's a very, you know, that's where we should all start, and that's a very
04:10 good point, is that the fact that we are often rushing around from A to B, if we take that
04:15 extra bit of care and try and slow down, then we may avoid a collision. But there are many,
04:21 many factors that we don't fully understand involved in crashes. It could be drugs, alcohol,
04:30 speed, behaviour, road conditions, lighting conditions, all sorts of factors. One of the
04:37 things that we have recently become aware of, alongside many other groups involved in
04:46 road safety, is the access to data. There is data available at states and territory
04:51 level on road crashes, but that data needs to be available and matched with injury-related
04:58 data so that we can analyse exactly why and where the crashes are occurring, so that we
05:04 can put in some preventative measures. That would be a huge step forward for the country
05:10 in trying to reduce the road fatalities, which at this point stand in excess of 100 a month.
05:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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