“It’s the worst it’s been in the 18 years I’ve been in WA emergency departments,” WA-based Australasian College for Emergency Medicine President-elect Peter Allely told Stateline.<\/p>\n
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Dr Peter Allely says emergency departments are being run as if in a “disaster situation”. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
He described a “disheartening” work environment, with many staff looking for a way out “and checking their super balance” with no end in sight.<\/p>\n
“We’ve almost moved, on some days, from the traditional triage process of seeing people by order of priority to almost like a disaster situation where \u2026 we are triaging but in some respects, we’re not, we’re just sieving and sorting like you would in a disaster situation, where people who have obviously immediate life threats are still getting seen.<\/p>\n
“And I don’t want to put anyone off coming to emergency departments, you will still get excellent care if you’ve got immediate life threats.<\/p>\n
“But it’s the group that aren’t immediate life threats, aren’t obvious immediate life threats, you’re getting put in our waiting room, that frighten us the most, because they might reveal themselves as having something horrible wrong with them while they’re sitting in our waiting room.”<\/p>\n
Ramping ‘fixation’<\/p>\n
Dr Allely also said an “unhealthy fixation” on ramping metrics within upper ranks of the health department was putting patients at risk.<\/p>\n
“Because we are getting phone calls on a daily basis to get people off the ramp who aren’t fit to be got off the ramp and are being put in the waiting rooms, unsupervised \u2026 because there’s not the resources to look after them,” he said.<\/p>\n
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WA public hospitals recorded a new ambulance ramping record last month. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“And then bad outcomes are happening, like the patient who suffers from dementia who comes in on an ambulance and gets put in a waiting room, even though they’re not safe to be put there, and then has a fall and injures themselves.<\/p>\n
“Those things are happening almost daily, I would say, in most emergency departments around the state and those incidents will increase.<\/p>\n
“The risk in our waiting rooms, in particular in the emergency departments, is just rising and rising and rising.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n