Page 4797 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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He does point out:
However, the patient should have been medically examined before leaving Woden Valley Hospital.
That is a matter of some concern to the doctor in charge of the Emergency Department at the time, Dr Lucas, obviously, and it is something that should have been addressed. We will ensure that it will not recur. The commissioner points out on page 7 that ambulance control advised the crew, when they had placed the woman back on the ambulance, that they could get their patient examined by a doctor before they left Woden Valley Hospital. He then says:
Since they were already under way they decided it was better to proceed. However, since Mrs A was still having difficulty breathing and the journey was longer, they decided to upgrade the priority ...
He says in conclusion:
Redirection of patients who can be better treated at another hospital is an appropriate workload management strategy if used sparingly, safely and efficiently. It can spread the load between the institutions which make up the public hospital service in the ACT.
He makes some suggestions about appropriate protocols for a redirection strategy, and we have developed those. I table the protocols.
Mrs Carnell: Tell the truth. There were no beds.
MR CONNOLLY: He makes the point that on that night there were pressures on bed numbers at Woden but not at Calvary. Mrs Carnell squawks, "There were no beds; there were no beds". I quote again:
It is not reasonable to expect that a hospital where emergency admissions constitute more than 40% of admissions will always have sufficient beds to admit all patients as soon as they arrive. This would mean that too many beds are left empty to cope with possible demand for emergencies when they should be used for elective admissions. In a well managed hospital temporary shortages will occur sometimes. The challenge is to achieve a balance between using resources efficiently and maintaining enough flexibility to cope with fluctuations in demand for services.
Going back to the point that redirection is a reasonable policy if used sparingly, it is used sparingly. We need to establish protocols, which we have done.
Madam Speaker, throughout this unfortunate incident Mrs Carnell and her colleagues have gleefully exploited this as a media stunt par excellence. I read, with some shame for the political conduct of this Territory, some additional findings made by the Health Complaints Commissioner. He says at page 12:
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