6 March 2006

Simon Corbell stares down the bleeding obvious on hospital waiting rooms.

| johnboy
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When I read on the ABC and the Canberra Times that ANU researchers had discovered that over-crowded emergency departments had been statistically linked with deaths I thought to myself “There’s another researcher spending our money on proving the self evident”.

So imagine my joy when I discovered (again on the ABC) that Simon Corbell has bravely denied concurrency as proof of causality.

ACT Health Minister Simon Corbell says a new study has found overcrowding was not the cause of deaths at the Canberra Hospital, only that there is a statistical link to busy periods.

UPDATED: Brendan Smyth has now weighed in on this, one hopes it doesn’t come back to bite a future Smyth government.

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Or arguementum ad nauseum, where bonfire is concerned.

Comments like this don’t help waiting lists, because they’ll put me in the hospital.

I think it has a lot to do with money – people can’t afford a doctor, nor a doctor who charges copious amounts after hours. Why pay for a doctor when you can go to the A&E for free? (not my opinion – just demonstrating what some people might be thinking).

At a hospital, you can have x-rays, ultrasounds etc and you 1) don’t have to pay (Medicare does that) and 2) you don’t have to wait forever to get it done.

When I’ve been in A&E (most recently was late last year), I was astounded by the number of people there with young children who honestly looked like all they had was a temperature and vomiting. Out of the 5 there on the night, none were serious enough to warrant a night of observation etc.

What’s sad is that there are some doctors who still bulk bill children up to 12yo.

However, my “favourite” of the night was the poor bastard who’d had his leg and arm broken who was made to wait for hours because the queue was massive. Now, I don’t know about you but sitting there for hours with two broken limbs would be hell.

hmmm

There is more to this “problem”

A big cause of delays in casulty are from people who use the ED as a local doctor because it’s free . Now, even though these people get triaged to the low priority, the fact that they are there causes admissions to get back up, causes the triage nurse to get backed up etc.

Considering this however, we must try to understand why people use the ED in such a way. And that unfortunately partially stems from Medicare not keeping up with CPI with regards to the scheduled fee and the death of bulk billing. That said, this isn’t a Medicare bash as there are plenty of other factors at play as well.

I dont really know what point I am trying to make, but just thought I would get some thoughts out there.

Simon’s on WIN now saying we need more research to determine what leads to this higher level of deaths.
Just spend the research money on more staff already.

I think that Brendan Smyth can sleep easy, the odds of a Smyth government ever coming to power seem very slim indeed.

Or arguementum ad nauseum, where bonfire is concerned.

Dalam Bahasa Inggris ?

unfortunately sometimes evidence which has been peer reviewed is required.

generally argumentum de consensu gentium is preferred in medical areas, whereas argumentum ad verecundiam is preferred in political matters. most on this blog prefer argumentum ad populum or when attacking something argumentum ad hominem. conversely argumentum a fortiori is often deployed to win an argument, but lacking evidence it can be demolished failry quickly.

in medical matters, always go with argumentum de consensu gentium.

I would say that being fatally wounded would be a primary cause of death amoungst hospital patients. Statistically, you could link that with upsurges in violent crime in the city, and consequently blame the proponents of violent crime as the primary influence on hospital deaths.

Just how is it that people this dumb get voted into positions of power ?

If anybody would like me to come and work for them to blindly make up statistics and then blindly link those statistics to other statistics, for an intense amount of monetary reimbursement, please contact me immediately.

If people stopped getting sick, then hospitals wouldn’t be overcrowded!

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