Mr KNIGHT - 2005-08-23
Over theits first term, the Martin Labor government supported the Royal Darwin Hospital with increased spending, more staff and more beds. Can the minister please telladvise the Assembly of what the government is doing to increase that support to help take pressure off the Royal Darwin Hospital Emergency Department?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, today I closed off a process off thatwhich started when I met with quite a large group of critical care nurses at Royal Darwin Hospital earlier this year. There was a lot ofmuch talk at the time about the problems with bed block within the Royal Darwin Hospital which, visually, you see as trolleys banking up in the Emergency Department simply because there are not beds to move patients on to elsewhere in the hospital.
There were a number of solutions canvassed at that meeting. We delivered on two of them today. One of the two solutions that have now been put in place, as a shorter term response to the problem, is an expansion of Hospital in the Home, which is a scheme under which patients can be discharged from the hospital but continue under care with experienced nurses and their attending doctor. That will free up up toaround 20 patients out offrom hospital beds, making those beds available for people being referred into the wards from the Emergency Department once they have had their initial assessment and treatment.
The other is a Transit Lounge, which is an area where up to eight patients at a time can be located, with a nurse in attendance, while they are waiting for the final stages of their discharge, such as obtaining their medicines, final medical reports and other information that might be sent away with them on discharge. Again, the hours that are spent in the Transit Lounge are hours that the beds they were in are freed up to be used for other patients coming out of the Emergency Department.
The other half of the solution is encompassed in our election commitment to put 24 more beds into that hospital, on top of the 52 we have already put in. However, the demand on that hospital increases year by year by approximately 4%, and we know that we need to continue to build up the bed numbers in the hospital, as well as making more efficient use of the existing beds in terms of patient flow through the care arrangements that they are put into.
It is a big step forward, and the nurses fully appreciated that we have not simply gone there and listened to them and gone away and done nothing. We have come back with some very tangible responses, not only to their concerns, but to the solutions they have put forward. Everyone was very reassured that we have this collaborative working arrangement, we are problem-solving together, we put a really good solution in place today and there is - more to come.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, today I closed off a process off thatwhich started when I met with quite a large group of critical care nurses at Royal Darwin Hospital earlier this year. There was a lot ofmuch talk at the time about the problems with bed block within the Royal Darwin Hospital which, visually, you see as trolleys banking up in the Emergency Department simply because there are not beds to move patients on to elsewhere in the hospital.
There were a number of solutions canvassed at that meeting. We delivered on two of them today. One of the two solutions that have now been put in place, as a shorter term response to the problem, is an expansion of Hospital in the Home, which is a scheme under which patients can be discharged from the hospital but continue under care with experienced nurses and their attending doctor. That will free up up toaround 20 patients out offrom hospital beds, making those beds available for people being referred into the wards from the Emergency Department once they have had their initial assessment and treatment.
The other is a Transit Lounge, which is an area where up to eight patients at a time can be located, with a nurse in attendance, while they are waiting for the final stages of their discharge, such as obtaining their medicines, final medical reports and other information that might be sent away with them on discharge. Again, the hours that are spent in the Transit Lounge are hours that the beds they were in are freed up to be used for other patients coming out of the Emergency Department.
The other half of the solution is encompassed in our election commitment to put 24 more beds into that hospital, on top of the 52 we have already put in. However, the demand on that hospital increases year by year by approximately 4%, and we know that we need to continue to build up the bed numbers in the hospital, as well as making more efficient use of the existing beds in terms of patient flow through the care arrangements that they are put into.
It is a big step forward, and the nurses fully appreciated that we have not simply gone there and listened to them and gone away and done nothing. We have come back with some very tangible responses, not only to their concerns, but to the solutions they have put forward. Everyone was very reassured that we have this collaborative working arrangement, we are problem-solving together, we put a really good solution in place today and there is - more to come.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016