Health & Family Revolutionising Australian Healthcare

This author, Toby Hall, chief executive of St Vincent's Health Australia, suggests Australia does not need more hospitals. Rather we need to better manage the healthcare system we already have. I like his argument.

The surprising truth about Australian hospitals — we don't need so many

 

I agree - so many beds are taken up by palliative patients and/or emergency rooms with "GP doctor" cases.

My MIL spent 8 days tying up a "full on" hospital bed, when dying from a massive stroke, which could've been spent in a lower intensity palliative care unit, as there was nothing to be done but keep her comfortable on pain killers and wait for her to pass.

Also our local hospital has a GP clinic attached and, last time I took junior there as she'd broken out in serious spots on a Sunday, they sent us around the corner to the the bulk bill clinic ... apparently she is allergic to penicillin and was simply a case of buying some antihistamine on the way home and "being aware". So no tying up of the hospital, which was great.

 

Last time I used a public hospital emergency centre was when I fractured a bone in my foot from running around barefoot in the backyard on Christmas Day after a few glasses of champas. It was near bedtime so I stuck it in a bucket of water for ten minutes and then went to bed. The foot, I mean, not the champagne.

Next day was, obviously, also a public holiday, so I went to the nearest public hospital because, well, there just wouldn't be any private GPs and Xray centres open that week. The staff were really apologetic, regularly informing us that we had to let real emergencies go ahead of us. This was fine with me. Anyways we were done and dusted inside two hours, probably faster than had we done the local run around in midweek suburbia.

 

My job for the last few years have been involving building new and redevelop existing hospitals, public and private. Yes I agree with Toby Hall on this. Healthcare delivery is certainly changing, and we need to adapt this quickly given the aging population and fewer people is going to pay the taxes to support these aging population.

Unfortunately building hospitals is always an election winner so I can see the spending spree to continue.

Also just because you chuck a lot of money into building a hospital doesn't mean the service improves. Look at Royal Adelaide Hospital as an example. I know some people there, and I had an internal tour as well. I could not believe the amount of money spent on some of the systems installed. Of course bad planning didn't help either.

$2bn bungles at Australia’s most expensive building puts ‘lives at risk’

Administrators appointed to run health network's finances

 

I was chatting with my neighbour a few days ago (anecdotal, I know ). Their daughter nearly died at birth and has multiple disabilities. He was saying that during the time she was in Neo Natal ICU, there was a group of nurses out the front of the hospital on strike, demanding more nurses be employed. Upstairs the nurses were wasting time running around looking for the one or two breast pumps and baby baths available to mothers across the entire hospital when they had better things to do. Maybe, he said, the hospital just had to buy more breast pumps and more baby baths.

 

I remember, not to long ago, a new hospital in Sydney was built without consultation of the staff as to what is required ... the operating theatres were subsequently deemed to be too small to actually perform surgery in. Not sure what happened, but what a massive waste of money and resources and assume they had to be rebuilt

 

I think with a growing number of citizens needing medical facilities in the future this will become a REAL issue.
Better facilities and more of them will be required.
Climate change debate, hospital expenditure.... I know where I would prefer my tax dollars to be spent!

 

Actually, the article is saying we will need fewer hospitals not more!

 

Yes, the author is suggesting the current ones need to be better managed and more $$ put into home care/community health services rather than building more shiny buildings for the sake of building another shiny building. With modern and ever-improving technologies, healthcare can be quicker and better managed allowing more patients access to the current sized facilities. This wont necessarily be a one-size fits all generic statement - i am trying to summarise his article.

 

Not forgetting 70%+ of operating costs of a hospital budget is spent on people. That's those who work in them not presenting to them.

Last time I was involved many years ago it was proposed to increase the number of beds in an ICU. Management wavered when it was realised the annual staffing costs were the same as the one-off cost of increasing the number of beds.

With that in mind it can put the author's thoughts in another light.