There has been a curious thing going on in Dunedin and Invercargill hospitals, and in some other hospitals around the country too. They have been full over the summer. This high occupancy in summer causes much inconvenience to patient and clinician alike.
High hospital occupancy is typically a winter event, but this year it happened early, long before any flu season. Clinicians, who sounded the alarm back in December, are concerned that unless the high occupancy is fixed, our hospitals may become more seriously congested this winter.
What is more, people who have been waiting for their planned surgery face delays, and sometimes don’t find out till the day of their operation.
So, what caused this problem in summer? The best ‘guess’ is that Covid-19 meant health workers had a pretty tough 2020, and that we have still to catch up on the backlog of treatment deferred during the lockdown. On top of that Invercargill’s ED is seeing lots more people than expected. and of course Dunedin hospital is getting old. Added to this have been challenges in recruiting nurses which has restricted the number of patients we can care for at a point in time.
The solution involves lots of different practices, perhaps already partly but not reliably in place. Two examples: instead of admitting someone for a few days so they can get the CT or MRI scan they need, they can be admitted to a ‘virtual ward’. That means they can wait at home, be sure they still have a timely scan, but in the meantime free up a bed (of course, the better solution is to buy another CT scanner – one is on order). Another example is developing discharge criteria so that patients can go home once they have met all the criteria, rather than waiting for the specialist to visit next day. Added to this, of course is the recruitment of nurses, helped lately by recent local graduates from our local nursing schools.
We call all this action the ‘patient taskforce’ and if you notice you are getting through the system a bit more quickly, that might be why.
We hope to unblock our hospitals in time for winter, resume the level of planned surgery we want to have and maybe even give our health workers time in their day to catch their breath..
Check out these other Better Health South Stories:
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New wellbeing programme run by staff for staff
Renewed partnership between Southern runaka and health authorities
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Southland Hospital staff enjoy Surf to City event
