Arabic version: مستشفى لاونسستون العام يقيّد القبول مع بلوغ السعة مستوىً حرجًا
Launceston General Hospital is operating with ‘impacted’ capacity and its ability to admit more patients is limited. According to ABC News, Health Secretary Dale Webster said the hospital was experiencing high demand for services, particularly patients with acute health needs. “At present, clinical services are being managed at the hospital but capacity is impacted, limiting our ability to admit more patients,” Mr Webster said.
Mr Webster directed people who cannot wait for an appointment with their general practitioner to the state’s eight bulk-billed Medicare Urgent Care Clinics and urged patients to only attend the hospital if it is a medical emergency.
The Tasmanian branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation said it understood only three beds were available across the entire hospital on Tuesday evening. “The hospital is at critical capacity both in the emergency department but more broadly right across the hospital,” ANMF branch secretary Emily Shepherd said.
Ms Shepherd said issues such as this occurred due to “ongoing access and flow block” and that “the ANMF have been calling for initiatives to improve access and flow for years now, and none of those strategies have actually been picked up.” She said the hospital had been at critical capacity for four weeks.
On Monday last week, the union reported the hospital’s emergency department was overflowing, describing the scenes as “chaotic” and “unsafe.” The union said it anticipated the situation would worsen and called on Tasmanian Health Minister Bridget Archer to implement concrete solutions to address the ongoing issue. “We’re at crisis tonight and we’ll continue to be if the government doesn’t step up and address this matter,” Ms Shepherd said. “Our members certainly don’t want to hear that this is a federal government issue.”
What happens next: the nurses union has called on the state’s health minister to implement concrete solutions to address the ongoing problem. The health department has been contacted for comment.
Related sections: Australia/استراليا | South Australia | Tasmania | General | Social/إجتماعية
