Increase in demand for emergency hospital treatment triples population growth
December 7, 2016Obesity is a national health crisis, Government needs to act
December 8, 2016AMA (NSW) President, Prof Brad Frankum, says the latest Bureau of Health Information report shows exactly why South East Regional Hospital needs more staff.
“There was a surge of almost 40 per cent in the number of emergency presentations in Bega between Q3 2015 and Q3 2016.
“The drop in performance measures prompted the Health Minister’s office to say this points to a need for improvement.
“A surge like that is not a reflection on the performance of a hospital, its staff, or an indication of a need for them to improve.
“It’s reflection of inadequate staffing numbers in the face of a rapidly growing number of patients.
“Compounding the problem is the fact that the number of triage two patients, the people with second most urgent conditions, went up by almost 50 per cent,” Prof Frankum said.
“I have said before that despite improvements made to the infrastructure of South East Regional Hospital, without adequate staff numbers, it’s just a bigger building.
“Staffing levels at Bega have been an ongoing issue and this report shows that patient numbers are increasing dramatically.
“South East Regional Hospital needs more doctors and other staff in order to cope with the increase in patient numbers it is seeing.
“Otherwise, through no fault of its staff, it will continue to see declines against performance measures, which mean longer waits to treatment for patients.
“The Local Health District needs to take action on this and hire additional permanent, non-locum staff immediately,” Prof Frankum said.
Media contact: Lachlan Jones 0419 402 955