Hospitals still not up to scratch?

What on earth do you mean by having an ED “at each end of Canberra”??

Instead of opening new hospitals, I’d be happy for them to concentrate upon properly and adequately staffing the two hospitals they have already, just quietly.

gun street girl said :

jakez said :

Does private health insurance speed things up at all?

No. You don’t get seen quicker in the ED if you are privately insured. You might find an inpatient bed quicker (after you have done the initial wait in the ED), if you opt to go to a private hospital, although many would recommend against leaving the tertiary public hospital if you are deadly ill.

so, does anyone know why we don’t have an ED at each end of canberra as well as calvary & TCH?
seems that this should be an election promise….

More beds, more nurses and doctors and more hospitals. wouldn’t it be lovely?

but still no dragway….

jakez said :

Does private health insurance speed things up at all?

No. You don’t get seen quicker in the ED if you are privately insured. You might find an inpatient bed quicker (after you have done the initial wait in the ED), if you opt to go to a private hospital, although many would recommend against leaving the tertiary public hospital if you are deadly ill.

Genie said :

Last time I was at the hospital I was with my mum who had a suspected broken bone…. 2 hour wait to see a doctor, then I think it was about an hour for the xray.. then about another hour to get back in to see the doctor.

Wow you had it really lucky.

When I broke my thumb at football training (who breaks their thumb at TRAINING?), we waited 4 hours to see the doctor, then found out the xray part had closed. So we came back the next day, another long wait for the xray, another loooong wait to see someone for the results. Another looooong wait to have it plastered. Most of the day all up.

When I had my motorcycle accident I remember waiting on the guerney in some corridor for a while. Then had to wait most of the day for someone to look at my leg. It was NOT serious though. I just had a bit of a concussion, a knock to the knee and some puncture wounds to the leg. Considering my head bounced off the toe bar ofa van, I was probably pretty lucky. Thank god for helmets.

It’s understandable but it’s a bloody pain in the arse. The annoyance of being injured is soon overtaken by the frustration of having to wait so long.

Does private health insurance speed things up at all?

As far as GP’s go. Whenever I’ve had a cold or something as equally minor, i’ve just stayed home rather than wasting the docs time when there’s nothing they can do. However.. since recently losing pay for not providing a docs certificate, i guess i’ll be clogging up the system every time now. what a joke.

gun street girl said :

In my experience, there is a problem with patients who can afford to pay, who just don’t want to. Many patients, who wouldn’t think twice about spending $50 on a manicure or night out, baulk at the idea of paying for good health.

Unfortunately, I am not in that category. I want to bulk bill so that the tight budget I live on cannot be blown out by any amount. Maybe if we both were working, we could afford to visit a GP.

splitting my income across 2 people means that we would both earn $26K each.

not a lot, and with a total of 5 mouths in the family, every saving counts.

In my experience, there is a problem with patients who can afford to pay, who just don’t want to. One of the unfortunate side effects of having a system like Medicare is the expectation from the public that all health care should be free. Many patients, who wouldn’t think twice about spending $50 on a manicure or night out, baulk at the idea of paying for good health.

Access to GPs in Canberra is a problem. Admittedly, we have a dearth of bulk billing practices, but a larger problem is a deficiency of numbers across the board. The ACT is currently classified as an “area of need”, given that we only have one GP for roughly every 1000 Canberrans. As such, some presentations to TCH ED are due to the fact that patients simply can’t access a GP, full stop, or that their regular GP can’t see them in a timely manner.

Mutto said :

How about the Department of Health setting aside some space in the hospital precincts (Canberra and Calvary) for such clinics (even privately run) and see how much that eases the emergency department ?

They have. They are called CALMS (Canberra Afterhours Locum Medical Service).

unfortunately, they cost money, they don’t bulk bill.

there is a service for calms in tuggers, but it doesn’t operate after hours like TCH.

Cool..thanks.

Access block is when admitted patients cannot move any further than the ED because there is no room for them in the wards. The knock on effect is that it’s not uncommon to have patients waiting in an acute ED bed for over 24 hours until a ward bed frees up, thus limiting access to that acute bed to incoming ED patients. The hospital crisis extends far, far further than the emergency department. All departments are being squeezed dry. The system couldn’t get much more lean or mean than it is right now.

Also, it’s a misperception to think that the lower category patients aren’t ill enough to warrant admission. Certainly, it’s not uncommon to have to admit Cat 4 patients (who would be waiting a heck of a lot longer on average than your Cat 2 chest pain).

Yes, I understand that…kinda my point. ie. If you are there for hours, then you’re probably not that sick/injured that you can’t wait. Yes, it’s a pain….but bad luck I say.

Sorry, what do you mean by “access block”?

The ED responds quickly to high category emergencies, which is why you were seen so quickly, Justbands. Nevertheless, as somebody who works in the system, I would disagree that you “can’t ask for more”. Access block is a massive problem, and setting up 24 hour GP clinics won’t fix that.

I always here these “statistics” & think hmmmmmmm. In my experience over the years, our hospital emeergency system has been excellent.

I’ve been there as a patient (head injury…straight in, severed finger….straight in) a parent (asthma….straight in, mystery virus….straight in) & most recently on Sunday night my brother had a suspected heart attack (turns out he’s ok). From buckling over in pain at home to Woden (via Calvary) getting an angiogram (having already had several ECGs) was less than 1 hour. He had the best care by qualified people with the right equipment in a timely manner. Can’t ask for more than that.

Mutto – CALMS is a great service, but it’s not free. I’ve used it a couple of times and was happy to pay for it, but it won’t reduce the people in the waiting room who want completely free medical advice for a runny nose.

24hr bulk billing clinics is what’s needed, but I don’t know how financially viable it is. My other half started doing her reg training for GP (no, it’s not just the doctors who can’t do anything else – there is a lot of training required) but dropped out because the constant pressure from the practice owners was to bill as much as possible, as quickly as possible. This does not make for good medicine.

Wise move, that!

Last time I was at the hospital I was with my mum who had a suspected broken bone…. 2 hour wait to see a doctor, then I think it was about an hour for the xray.. then about another hour to get back in to see the doctor.

There were so many people in the hospital waiting room, that had a runny nose, a cough etc… I just feel that people need to learn about their bodies and realise that a good nights rest will do them better than sitting in a hospital waiting room for several hours only to be told to go to the chemist and buy bloody cold and flu tablets.

I use Health First regularly, and recently chose to spend 5 days in bed sick as a dog then to go to the hospital because I couldn’t get an appointment anywhere over the weekend. All in all – bad case of gastro. Doctor wouldn’t have been able to help me anyways other than recommend fluids… Had I gone to the emergency room, I would have wasted mine and the doctors time and probably passed on my bug to several other people.

I use Health First regularly, it’s good for deciding what needs to go to ED and what can wait a few hours at the bulk billing clinic and what can wait a few days for our regular GP. If it can wait for the GP, they also give advice on how to manage symptoms in the meantime.

There is a dire shortage of GPs in Canberra. ACT Govt could certainly do more to support getting more GPs seeing people and thereby free up the ED.

Something we already knew, worst waiting times in Australia. I’m sure someone sometime got in within 30 mins when it was dead quiet though. I’m sure if every single person with a cold stayed at home instead of going to the hospital for the hospital to tell them to go home and go to bed it would be much better, but every other hospital in the country has the same problem, just TCH is consistently bad.

Whatsup said :

If you ring Health First on 02 6207 7777 or 1800 022 222 they have nursing staff that can evaluate your situation and offer advice on your next move. Their answers can range between ” We are sending an ambulance for you now. ” to “We suggest you see a GP within the next 24 hours.” They might save you a trip and a long wait.

Arguably, interventions like Health First can actually increase ED presentations, due to the sheer impossibility of being certain about a diagnosis over the telephone. The default for anything more complex than “My pinky finger has been hurting for twenty years – should I go to the ED?” tends to be advice for the patient to present to the ED, just in case.

I took my son who had breathing difficulties into TCH emergency department and he was seen immediately. The staff were awesome, could not have asked for better care.

If you go to the emergency department with anything less than serious than don’t winge about waiting. Unfortunately people with cuts and broken bones can have a long wait if there are plenty of more urgent cases. I reckon a separate clinic that specialises in Xrays, Stitches and Plaster would be good.

If you ring Health First on 02 6207 7777 or 1800 022 222 they have nursing staff that can evaluate your situation and offer advice on your next move. Their answers can range between ” We are sending an ambulance for you now. ” to “We suggest you see a GP within the next 24 hours.” They might save you a trip and a long wait.

CALMS said they wouldn’t see my daughter one evening because our GP didn’t have an agreement with them. Not sure what that was all about but it wasn’t helpful at all.

Newspaper reports recently highlighted Canberra as having the worst waiting times in the Nation in every category.

I’d say Jacqui is onto something this time.

How about the Department of Health setting aside some space in the hospital precincts (Canberra and Calvary) for such clinics (even privately run) and see how much that eases the emergency department ?

They have. They are called CALMS (Canberra Afterhours Locum Medical Service).

Genie said :

I’m actually hoping the new ads on TV will help with the hospitals emergency system.

If you had a god damn cold – STAY AT HOME AND STOP CLOGGING UP THE WAITING ROOMS !!!

*awaiting all criticism*

I actually agree Genie. Canberra’s lack of 24hour bulk billing clinics means that anyone who hasn’t got the $55+ to pay upfront for a doctor visit, worried parents, or those who can’t wait the couple of days it takes to get an appointment, will turn up at the emergency ward becuase there is sometimes no alternative.

How about the Department of Health setting aside some space in the hospital precincts (Canberra and Calvary) for such clinics (even privately run) and see how much that eases the emergency department ?

Anecdotally, I would say her claims about the Cat 3 and 4 waiting times are close to accurate – particularly during the night.

I’m sure they could run an excellent hospital if those pesky patients stopped turning up!

.

I’m actually hoping the new ads on TV will help with the hospitals emergency system.

If you had a god damn cold – STAY AT HOME AND STOP CLOGGING UP THE WAITING ROOMS !!!

*awaiting all criticism*

rather than just sniping from the sidelines

i’m not having a go; its just this slanging match between jacqui and katy has been going on in the same format for ages now…
step 1.) jacqui ‘investigates’ some issue and tries to slam katy
step 2.) katy calls her on the BS
step 3.) zeddy claims her being proved wrong is another example of act labor arrogance

i’m just sick of this story occurring again and again; if jacqui wants to campaign on health then good for her; but i’d rather see her put up and try and sell a viable alternative

Well we’ll publish the rebuttals as they arrive.

yawn
i give it a day before jacqui burkes claims are shot down in flames; thats the usual story with anything out of her mouth.