Psyber wrote:Wedgie wrote:MW wrote:It won't be more beds that reduces ramping (I wont say eliminates cause that wont happen) but it will be increased turnover of patients i.e. not keeping them in longer than they need too, moving them to hotels similar to what they do with women after labour etc.
It may be just a matter of moving patients to appropriate wards more efficiently.
I was in Flinders Emergency once for almost 10 hours because they thought they couldn't find a spot for me in the cardiac ward. At 4am they finally moved me to the cardiac ward and the staff in there told me they were near empty and had been for days. Had almost the entire ward to myself after spending 10 hours in a packed emergency ward for no reason.
The organisation in the place was horrific.
The idea, even if there are beds available, is to keep them empty so the number of nurses needed to look after the patients in the wards is less. Another past mistake was moving nursing training from the hospitals to the Education facilities. Administrators thought they could save money by not having to pay for the training staff. They overlooked that fact that trainee nurses under senior nurse supervision kept the beds open at lower cost than hiring nurses trained elsewhere.
The current Womens and Childrens should be kept for this very purpose, patients under the care of trainee nurses with trained nurses overseeing the process. Would be perfect as the next line after aged care as I have noted above.
