❓ Ms. Mettam questions the Minister for Health about a patient's long wait time in a hospital corridor despite claimed investments. The Minister acknowledges a busy period, citing weather, a long weekend, and increased presentations, while highlighting improvements in ambulance response times and the need for broader healthcare reform.
AnsweredQoN 378Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS — WAIT TIMES
Ms L. METTAM : Madam Speaker!
The SPEAKER : The Leader of the Liberal Party.
Mr T.J. Healy : She stood up to do it!
Ms L. METTAM : What?
Mr T.J. Healy : You stood up to answer the call.
The SPEAKER : Member for Southern River, your interjection
is unhelpful.
378. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to my question almost two years ago regarding the
practice of ''red squaring'' patients in corridors and the
minister's following response —
We are investing in our long-stay
patients and moving them out into aged-care facilities and transition care. We
are investing in virtual emergency medicine � there is significant investment
happening across the system �
If there has been such significant investment in beds and
staff across our health system over the past two years, why was a 65-year-old
cancer patient, Mr Gary Helm, forced to spend more than six hours on a trolley
parked next to a public toilet in a hospital corridor for the second time?
Ms L. METTAM : Madam Speaker!
The SPEAKER : The Leader of the Liberal Party.
Mr T.J. Healy : She stood up to do it!
Ms L. METTAM : What?
Mr T.J. Healy : You stood up to answer the call.
The SPEAKER : Member for Southern River, your interjection
is unhelpful.
378. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to my question almost two years ago regarding the
practice of ''red squaring'' patients in corridors and the
minister's following response —
We are investing in our long-stay
patients and moving them out into aged-care facilities and transition care. We
are investing in virtual emergency medicine � there is significant investment
happening across the system �
If there has been such significant investment in beds and
staff across our health system over the past two years, why was a 65-year-old
cancer patient, Mr Gary Helm, forced to spend more than six hours on a trolley
parked next to a public toilet in a hospital corridor for the second time?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the Leader of the Liberal Party for outlining all our
investments and reforms in the health system. What we have seen over the last
two years, in particular in the last year, is a significant drop in the wait
times to come into an emergency department. There has been a significant drop
in those ramping hours. That is because of our record investment and the reforms going in on our health system. We
cannot continue to do things the same way. We cannot continue for
emergency departments to be the only catch-all for health in our community.
That is essentially what occurs on weekends when it is the only health service
that is open. It becomes incredibly busy.
That has an impact on those
following Mondays and Tuesdays. From my understanding of his records, in the
week that that gentleman was admitted, he
spent four hours, not six as reported, waiting for a bed. That week was
incredibly busy. There are a number of reasons for that. It was the
first wet weather that we have seen this winter. Every first wet weekend or wet
day sees a spike in emergency department attendances. Police probably see a spike
in activity as well. It was also a long
weekend. Staff take leave on long weekends. That makes it more challenging to
discharge patients over those weekends. We had fewer staff and were
covering more positions. That made for a very busy Monday and Tuesday.
On
top of those things, we saw a 23 per cent increase in presentations. That is an
almost unheard of as a single-day increase in presentations. There is a confluence
of issues on those particular days. I will tell members what: there were more patients waiting, but the staff saw
sicker patients first, and that is what they have to do. They have to triage .
The system is designed to flex up and flex down on demand. We saw more sicker
patients coming in and more of them being seen. That is what the staff did.
That is a good thing. The staff are actively triaging and seeing sicker
patients first.
There is a range of complexities
here. We have seen that system recover and we are back to more normalised
attendances and activity. But what we did not see on that day, which is really
important, was a drop in the priority 1 response for ambulances. We did not see
a significant drop in their standby capacity. The ability for the system to
continue to respond to those priority 1s was maintained. That is because of
record investment and a new contract with the ambulance service; that is the
system working to release paramedics back on the road. The sickest people in
our community who needed that health care got there.
We have long called for reform in
the health system, and we are absolutely doing our bit in the state with a record
number of full-time equivalent increases for clinical, nursing and medical
staff. There have been 700 additional beds in the last two years. But we cannot
keep sending everyone to hospital. We need the commonwealth to invest
appropriately into primary care to manage chronic disease in the community and
in more aged-care beds. Aged care is full in Western Australia. Residential
aged care is not taking new residents. We need serious reform in the National
Disability Insurance Scheme so that we can move patients through our hospital
beds into more appropriate accommodation settings and so that we can limit the
occurrence of these issues on very busy days.
investments and reforms in the health system. What we have seen over the last
two years, in particular in the last year, is a significant drop in the wait
times to come into an emergency department. There has been a significant drop
in those ramping hours. That is because of our record investment and the reforms going in on our health system. We
cannot continue to do things the same way. We cannot continue for
emergency departments to be the only catch-all for health in our community.
That is essentially what occurs on weekends when it is the only health service
that is open. It becomes incredibly busy.
That has an impact on those
following Mondays and Tuesdays. From my understanding of his records, in the
week that that gentleman was admitted, he
spent four hours, not six as reported, waiting for a bed. That week was
incredibly busy. There are a number of reasons for that. It was the
first wet weather that we have seen this winter. Every first wet weekend or wet
day sees a spike in emergency department attendances. Police probably see a spike
in activity as well. It was also a long
weekend. Staff take leave on long weekends. That makes it more challenging to
discharge patients over those weekends. We had fewer staff and were
covering more positions. That made for a very busy Monday and Tuesday.
On
top of those things, we saw a 23 per cent increase in presentations. That is an
almost unheard of as a single-day increase in presentations. There is a confluence
of issues on those particular days. I will tell members what: there were more patients waiting, but the staff saw
sicker patients first, and that is what they have to do. They have to triage .
The system is designed to flex up and flex down on demand. We saw more sicker
patients coming in and more of them being seen. That is what the staff did.
That is a good thing. The staff are actively triaging and seeing sicker
patients first.
There is a range of complexities
here. We have seen that system recover and we are back to more normalised
attendances and activity. But what we did not see on that day, which is really
important, was a drop in the priority 1 response for ambulances. We did not see
a significant drop in their standby capacity. The ability for the system to
continue to respond to those priority 1s was maintained. That is because of
record investment and a new contract with the ambulance service; that is the
system working to release paramedics back on the road. The sickest people in
our community who needed that health care got there.
We have long called for reform in
the health system, and we are absolutely doing our bit in the state with a record
number of full-time equivalent increases for clinical, nursing and medical
staff. There have been 700 additional beds in the last two years. But we cannot
keep sending everyone to hospital. We need the commonwealth to invest
appropriately into primary care to manage chronic disease in the community and
in more aged-care beds. Aged care is full in Western Australia. Residential
aged care is not taking new residents. We need serious reform in the National
Disability Insurance Scheme so that we can move patients through our hospital
beds into more appropriate accommodation settings and so that we can limit the
occurrence of these issues on very busy days.
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