Ahead of Saturday’s election, the peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and New Zealand has warned The Coalition and Labor the systemic problems in healthcare require sophisticated solutions, not slogans.
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) NSW Faculty Chair Dr Chris Trethewy said: “Throwing cash around, making grand announcements – as has been the case during the election campaign – brings much needed upgrades to the ageing infrastructure, but inspires little confidence in frontline staff. We need to start building medical, nursing and allied health workforce for the future as much as we need new buildings.
“After Saturday, the College is keen to work with those elected to realise improvements to patients’ experiences of care in emergency departments.”
With more than 40 emergency departments in NSW accredited to provide the College’s training program, ACEM has more than 600 Fellows – specialist emergency medicine doctors – providing critical care across the state.
ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins said action was needed around staffing levels, investment in processes and systems to deliver best care, and better management of chronic disease and improved community-based care.
“ACEM’s own guidelines which spell out how many senior medical staff must be employed by hospitals to provide proper care, are being ignored in NSW,” Dr Judkins said.
“That is, hospitals are operating at or overcapacity the majority of the time, which ensures significant delays to care and this is borne out in emergency departments.”
ACEM has also been outspoken about the quality of care being provided to people who present to emergency departments with mental health crises – they are getting substandard care, waiting sometimes days and having to be sedated and restrained because of the lack of appropriate services in the community. This is particularly evident in rural, regional and remote NSW.
“NSW needs to introduce and support mandatory reporting of extreme wait times in emergency departments,” Dr Judkins said. “The Western Australian and Northern Territory governments have supported this move to help improve patient care.
“No one should spend 24 hours or longer in an emergency department. Ultimately, we will be working towards a 12 hours maximum time period for all patients presenting to emergency departments for care.”
Hospital and emergency department violence – keeping staff, patients and visitors safe – must also be a priority, along with tackling the prevalence of workplace fatigue and bullying, Dr Judkins said.
Background
ACEM is the peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for training emergency physicians and advancement of professional standards.
