Ambulance crisis

[stui magpie]

Good on Junior, great stuff, but yeah having 3 ambulances show up for 1 sick kid and all three staying around isn't effective use of resources.

Once it was established that it was a 1 Ambo job, the other 2 should have left.

[think positive]

Exactly , it doesn’t make sense an ambo and a critical care car would make sense, but not three normal ones

[watt price tully]

I mentioned ages ago that Emergency Departments were under the pump & while I deal with them daily I haven’t worked in one since April / May 2020. However this is a nationwide issue and the reasons are multi factorial.

1. COVID 19 is crippling / has crippled the system
2. Aged Care is a significant factor. The Feds have really f*cked up Aged Care big time and bed blockages due to placement issues blocks access and flow. This then means Ambulances are stuck with patients being unable to offload due to the blockages.
3. NDIS / Disability mismanagement is also serving to block beds as people can’t be placed.
4. Emergency Departments across Australia are full / crammed and staff are burning out.
5. Back to COVID and now influenza. These are now filling the ED’s again. A lot of people are dying huge numbers but the news cycle and government’s now say look elsewhere.
6. GP’s cost money that people don’t have so ED’s are being used

[eddiesmith]

How predictable, it's all the federal government's fault.

So 9 years ago when we had an ALP Federal Government and Dan was campaigning on the Ambulance crisis, it was the states fault and after 8 years as Premier and failing to fix the issue, its now the Feds fault.

Who will you blame when it continues to be an issue for the next 4 years?

[watt price tully]

How predictable, it's all the federal government's fault.

So 9 years ago when we had an ALP Federal Government and Dan was campaigning on the Ambulance crisis, it was the states fault and after 8 years as Premier and failing to fix the issue, its now the Feds fault.

Who will you blame when it continues to be an issue for the next 4 years?

One of us works in the system, works in multiple aspects of the system, works closely with people in the coal face, in policy and administration. The other doesn’t. One of us has informed opinions based on knowledge and experience.

[eddiesmith]

And that one person thinks the sun shines out of the Premiers ass.

If the Ambulance crisis hasn't been fixed in 9 years isn't the governments fault, then what would you ever admit the State government is actually responsible for?

[think positive]

I mentioned ages ago that Emergency Departments were under the pump & while I deal with them daily I haven’t worked in one since April / May 2020. However this is a nationwide issue and the reasons are multi factorial.

1. COVID 19 is crippling / has crippled the system
2. Aged Care is a significant factor. The Feds have really f*cked up Aged Care big time and bed blockages due to placement issues blocks access and flow. This then means Ambulances are stuck with patients being unable to offload due to the blockages.
3. NDIS / Disability mismanagement is also serving to block beds as people can’t be placed.
4. Emergency Departments across Australia are full / crammed and staff are burning out.
5. Back to COVID and now influenza. These are now filling the ED’s again. A lot of people are dying huge numbers but the news cycle and government’s now say look elsewhere.
6. GP’s cost money that people don’t have so ED’s are being used

welcome back grandad!! i hope all are well xx

i agree with you totally, blind freddie could work this out, cheers

[stui magpie]

The issues in public health are indeed multi factorial, many of them are systemic and have been around for ages, Covid has absolutely buckled an already stretched system.

People coming to ED's who don't need to be there is as old as the system. They don't create bed blockage because they never get near one but what they do is clog up the ED and make for a very unpleasant workplace for already stressed staff, coping with Numpties complaining about having to wait while more urgent cases get seen first.

Bed blockage is simply having people in hospital beds that don't need to be there, but you have no where to send them. That's usually caused by access to Post Acute Care, appropriate Allied Health or Disability services or even Palliative care.

I've been out of the system a bit over 4 years so I don't know how the NDIS has effected access to those services, they used to be coordinated through local community services or Hospital in the Home provisions run and coordinated by the health service itself. If even some of that is now managed via the NDIS, that is going to add days to length of stay without really proactive discharge planning, something that's hard enough to do normally but even harder when you're massively stressed and working reactively.

[Jezza]

Where's Andrews hiding?

Thirty-three Victorians died from emergencies that were linked to triple-zero delays or lengthy ambulance waits, a report into the state’s emergency call system has found.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/victori ... 5bf3i.html

[eddiesmith]

It's disgusting how bad the health system has been under Andrews, especially given it was a key part of his election campaign in 2014. But fixing health isn't as obvious and distracting to the public as spending billions and decades building tunnels...

[Pies4shaw]

It isn’t good - but, given the alternative (an opposition that will reduce funding for the ambulance service), it’s a strange choice for a political football. Last time the Libs had a decent crack at dismantling the ambulance system, we had to hold a Royal Commission into their escapades.

[watt price tully]

Where's Andrews hiding?

Thirty-three Victorians died from emergencies that were linked to triple-zero delays or lengthy ambulance waits, a report into the state’s emergency call system has found.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/victori ... 5bf3i.html

The system was swamped because of COVID, this is Australia wide. Refer to my earlier posts re:

Inability of Ambulances to offload / being ramped in hospitals across Australia.

NDIS
Aged beds both federal areas

They remain cause of bed blockages.

Then add to this those that friggin use ambulances for transport: there were those who rang said they had chest pain (think heart attack) but just wanted to get COVID tested.

People with anxiety can experience chest pain and have to be treated as though they’ve had a heart attack so get prioritised, GP surgeries no longer bulk billing so where do people go?

I used to deal with homeless people saying they had an OD or falsely say they were going to suicide; how do they get to see a Dr?

Add to the mix staff who got COVID or were contacts. I was getting SMS’d and emailed daily to help out in areas where there were just not enough staff. This then compounds the way people can be moved through ED’s.

This is a nationwide issue.

(I still get SMS’d twice daily for overtime in ED, where I work now (not ED) and with the Police.

Most reasonable people know there’s been an imperfect storm here. I don’t think that the twice elected Premier of Victoria has too much to answer for here.

Talk to me about the environment then I’m with you. Has done Bugger all.

[watt price tully]

Ambulance crisis Western Australia:

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101281710

Ambulance crisis South Australia:

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101220734

Ambulance crisis NSW

http://amp.triplem.com.au/story/nsw-set ... sis-203569

Ambulance crisis QLD

https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-w ... 942189.amp

[eddiesmith]

Yet the issues with ESTA were identified in 2015 and still the Andrews Labor Government did absolutely nothing about it.

It’s disgraceful that it takes people to die for the government to actually do anything.

As someone who’s dealt with ESTA on a regular basis for a long time, these problems of understaffing have been obvious since well before COVID.

[eddiesmith]

It isn’t good - but, given the alternative (an opposition that will reduce funding for the ambulance service), it’s a strange choice for a political football. Last time the Libs had a decent crack at dismantling the ambulance system, we had to hold a Royal Commission into their escapades.

So basically the cheerleaders responses are, well yes the Andrews Labor Government is incompetent, but you can’t prove anyone else could do better so we should just accept deaths due to his incompetence?

At least you’ve been consistent for the last 2.5 years…