❓ Ms Mettam questions the Minister for Health regarding bed block in WA hospitals, citing comments from Dr. Allely. The Minister responds by acknowledging the issue, detailing increased demand, investment in new beds, and calling for federal support for NDIS and aged-care packages.
AnsweredQoN 270Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EMERGENCY
DEPARTMENTS
270. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to comments by Dr Peter
Allely, the Western Australian faculty chair of the Australasian College for
Emergency Medicine, who stated on radio yesterday, that the —
� numbers
of patients presenting � to emergency departments, are actually down � over the
past couple of months � But we're � basically stuck with
emergency departments full of people that have already been admitted, waiting
for beds upstairs � that's the block �
What responsibility does the
Minister for Health take for our health system having —
The SPEAKER : Sorry, member.
The Premier is actually here. Is the Minister for Health here?
A government member: Yes.
The SPEAKER : I am sorry. I did
not see her. Keep going; sorry. All these masks!
Ms L. METTAM : What
responsibility does the Minister for Health take for the system going into the
COVID-19 pandemic with the lowest number of public available beds per capita
leading to this inevitable bed block that we are now seeing across the hospital
system?
DEPARTMENTS
270. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to comments by Dr Peter
Allely, the Western Australian faculty chair of the Australasian College for
Emergency Medicine, who stated on radio yesterday, that the —
� numbers
of patients presenting � to emergency departments, are actually down � over the
past couple of months � But we're � basically stuck with
emergency departments full of people that have already been admitted, waiting
for beds upstairs � that's the block �
What responsibility does the
Minister for Health take for our health system having —
The SPEAKER : Sorry, member.
The Premier is actually here. Is the Minister for Health here?
A government member: Yes.
The SPEAKER : I am sorry. I did
not see her. Keep going; sorry. All these masks!
Ms L. METTAM : What
responsibility does the Minister for Health take for the system going into the
COVID-19 pandemic with the lowest number of public available beds per capita
leading to this inevitable bed block that we are now seeing across the hospital
system?
AnswerView source ↗
The
comments by Dr Allely exactly reflect the situation in our hospitals,
particularly around long-stay patients. I went into a lot of detail on that
yesterday. I will deal with demand first. Over the past few months, demand has
been slowly increasing, and across the system, certainly in the last couple of
weeks, particularly this week, demand has significantly increased. The data
shows that across the system; more people are walking into our emergency departments—significantly more. It is a fact
that demand is increasing, particularly as we have a COVID surge and we
are coming into the winter months. I just want to make that clear to the
chamber.
The second point he made, which is
a very good point, was around beds being taken up by long-stay patients in
particular. The other part to that is that the data also shows that we have a significant
increase in what is called triage 2—level 2 acuity. It is up by 22 per cent
in the last 12 months—that is, very sick people are walking through the
door with more illness and a multitude of chronic illnesses, which means that
their length of stay is longer. So, the
average length of stay in hospital is getting longer. Because we have been
seeing this trend for a while now, the government
has invested in 530 new beds. That is the size of a tertiary hospital and that
is to deal with that increasing demand, that increasing complexity and
the length of stay. More than 300 of those beds have been online since the
budget last year. Since last year's budget, there have been more than
300 beds and the staff put in place to support those beds. That is what we are
doing, member for Vasse. That is exactly what we are doing.
What
we need is for the federal government to do its bit, too, to support the more
than 200 people waiting for NDIS packages and residential aged-care packages,
and for those people waiting for psychosocial packages, which seems to take months if not years to put in place. I go
to psychiatric units where people are ready to be discharged and the staff are literally fighting with the NDIS every day to
get a psychosocial package put in place that is appropriate for them.
We are focused on solutions. We are
focused on working with doctors like Dr Peter Allely, St John Ambulance and primary health care, and we are absolutely
putting in the investment where we need to increase beds. I want to correct another misunderstanding. The member said that we have the lowest
number of beds per capita. We have the highest spend per capita of any health
jurisdiction. The focus needs to be on stopping people from getting into those
beds because the recovery is so much longer for those people. The focus needs
to be on primary health care and supporting those people in the community. That
is what we are putting our focus on, as well as significantly increasing our
beds in the system.
comments by Dr Allely exactly reflect the situation in our hospitals,
particularly around long-stay patients. I went into a lot of detail on that
yesterday. I will deal with demand first. Over the past few months, demand has
been slowly increasing, and across the system, certainly in the last couple of
weeks, particularly this week, demand has significantly increased. The data
shows that across the system; more people are walking into our emergency departments—significantly more. It is a fact
that demand is increasing, particularly as we have a COVID surge and we
are coming into the winter months. I just want to make that clear to the
chamber.
The second point he made, which is
a very good point, was around beds being taken up by long-stay patients in
particular. The other part to that is that the data also shows that we have a significant
increase in what is called triage 2—level 2 acuity. It is up by 22 per cent
in the last 12 months—that is, very sick people are walking through the
door with more illness and a multitude of chronic illnesses, which means that
their length of stay is longer. So, the
average length of stay in hospital is getting longer. Because we have been
seeing this trend for a while now, the government
has invested in 530 new beds. That is the size of a tertiary hospital and that
is to deal with that increasing demand, that increasing complexity and
the length of stay. More than 300 of those beds have been online since the
budget last year. Since last year's budget, there have been more than
300 beds and the staff put in place to support those beds. That is what we are
doing, member for Vasse. That is exactly what we are doing.
What
we need is for the federal government to do its bit, too, to support the more
than 200 people waiting for NDIS packages and residential aged-care packages,
and for those people waiting for psychosocial packages, which seems to take months if not years to put in place. I go
to psychiatric units where people are ready to be discharged and the staff are literally fighting with the NDIS every day to
get a psychosocial package put in place that is appropriate for them.
We are focused on solutions. We are
focused on working with doctors like Dr Peter Allely, St John Ambulance and primary health care, and we are absolutely
putting in the investment where we need to increase beds. I want to correct another misunderstanding. The member said that we have the lowest
number of beds per capita. We have the highest spend per capita of any health
jurisdiction. The focus needs to be on stopping people from getting into those
beds because the recovery is so much longer for those people. The focus needs
to be on primary health care and supporting those people in the community. That
is what we are putting our focus on, as well as significantly increasing our
beds in the system.
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