Health service moves to allay fears over hospital bed losses
The North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) has moved to allay nurses’ fears of bed losses at local hospitals, including Ballina District Hospital.
The briefing followed criticisms by the NSW Nurses Assocation of the setting aside of beds in local hospitals, including six at Ballina, as ‘surge beds’ to be used in emergencies.
The NCAHS says it has provided the NSW Nurses’ Association with a detailed briefing on the strategies to be used to treat more patients with either mild or chronic conditions in the home and/or community settings, rather than as hospital in-patients.
NCAHS chief executive Chris Crawford said that when fully implemented, the strategies will enable more fully-staffed hospital beds to be made available for acute patients at times of high demand.
The briefing noted that 170 additional full-time equivalent staff had been employed at NCAHS since 2005 to provide more timely access to care, around 150 being nursing staff.
This investment has been aimed at boosting community and hospital services that support alternate models of care to patient admission.
The NCAHS said briefing also noted:
The surge bed target is an indicator of the expected reduction in hospital bed occupancy through the introduction of the alternate models of care. As is routinely the practice in managing beds and staffing, when beds are not occupied staffing is reduced to the level required, taking into consideration the complexity and number of patients.
This would continue to be the practice. It is acknowledged that beds identified as surge beds will be occupied when required. This will be dependant on patient demand at the time and will need to be closely monitored.
It is important to note the beds are not closed, they are available at all times and need to be managed according to current demand and fully utilising alternate services.
As is current practice this is at the discretion of local management.
Areas explained in the briefing included:
Availability of alternative services.
A mix of Community and Health Care in the Home services is already well-established and have been further enhanced to meet the demand for assisting patients who would otherwise be admitted to an acute care hospital bed.
It is anticipated that increased medical input will enable more patients to be treated using existing community services, as is already occurring in Port Macquarie.
The recent enhancements will further expand the availability of these home and community services. Further enhancement of these services will occur as required. These services are listed in the attachment below.
