Hospital staff to be briefed on ’surge bed’ plan
Clinical staff at 14 of the North Coast’s main hospitals will receive first-hand briefings 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.
While these consultations are under way the ’surge bed’ aspect of the strategy will remain on hold.
The area-wide roadshow will be headed by North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) Chief Executive, Chris Crawford, and the Executive Director of Clinical Operations, Ms Denice Fletcher. They will visit hospitals between Tweed Heads and Port Macquarie over the next three weeks.
“This roadshow will detail the research and analysis behind the development of strategies to enable more hospital bed capacity to be available for seriously ill patients at times of high demand,” Mr Crawford said.
As well, Mr Crawford and Ms Fletcher will seek Clinical Staff’s feedback on the strategies, and discuss any concerns they may have.
“By listening and responding to concerns the strategies can be strengthened and made more effective,” Mr Crawford said.
“The aim of the strategy is to further expand appropriate models of care for people who could be treated in a non-inpatient setting. Such patients can be better treated in the home environment using Community Nursing support or, if they are sufficiently mobile, at the new express care clinics that are being established as an adjunct to major hospital emergency departments.
“The decision to establish the surge beds is based on a comprehensive analysis of the acuity of patients in North Coast hospitals. This will be fully explained to our Clinical Staff at the upcoming briefings.
” A mix of Community and Health Care in the Home services is already well established and will be further enhanced in the future to provide care for patients who would otherwise be admitted to an acute hospital bed.”
