Royal Darwin Hospital overcrowding at crisis point, significant underfunding, AMA says
Updated
Overcrowding at Royal Darwin Hospital is a persistent crisis, with patients waiting more than 24 hours to move from the Emergency Department to a hospital bed and some being "double-bunked", Northern Territory doctors say.
The NT branch of the Australian Medical Association (NT AMA) said Royal Darwin Hospital had been running at a capacity of 140 per cent and has called for a review into its sustainability.
Single cubicles had been double-bunked and filled with two people, and patients in the inpatient wards were being placed on trolleys in corridors, the AMA said.
It is this systemic overcrowding that is behind last-minute cancellations of elective surgeries, due to a soaring demand in the emergency wards, NT AMA President Dr Robert Parker said.
"Royal Darwin Hospital is the only place open in town for the whole of the top two thirds of the Territory and the wider region and there's just a massive burden of disease here," he said.
"A third of the population of the Territory is Indigenous [and] Indigenous Australians have got a much higher burden of disease than most other people.
"And obviously, it appears more and more now that the Territory health system is being significantly under-funded for the increasing burden of need that's been place upon it."
An extra 250 beds would be needed to cope with chronic health needs and critical overcrowding at the facility, Dr Parker said.
Elective surgeries rescheduled
Yesterday, the hospital announced it had to reschedule all non-urgent elective surgeries due to a peak in demand for emergency care, which was the third time in under a year.
"You've only got a limited amount of resources — nursing, medical, or whatever — and that needs to be devoted to the people who are in the beds at the time," Dr Parker said.
"Emergency Departments are being confronted by people with really complex issues, it's not one disease, its about three or four."
The NT AMA said nurses and doctors were working "heroically" to keep the system going, but the hospital had run at over 100 per cent capacity for years, and at a capacity of 140 per cent in recent months.
"The overcrowding in the hospital has been going on or months, its not just a seasonal thing or an epidemic issue and that tends to indicate that the system is exhausted and in need of significant further support," Dr Parker said.
Urgent need for funding review: NT AMA
Dr Parker said Canberra health economists, who decide how funding should be delegated, had, "got it wrong".
"I think there needs to be a significant review of health funding formulas for the Territory, because this example is a clear case of an exhausted health system where there's been insufficient funding for a number of years, which has lead to overwhelming needs," Dr Parker said.
"There's a significant disconnect between what health economists are deciding are the right ratios for treating Indigenous health in the Territory, as opposed to the real cost.
"And particularly the mark of disadvantage where Territorians can't access primary healthcare as other Australians can through Medicare, and it actually reflects a lot of remote and rural issues."
Palmerston 'not the solution'
The new Palmerston Hospital, due to open mid-year, is very unlikely to ease overcrowding as it will have a limited Emergency Department , Dr Parker said.
"It isn't going to be able to deal with the major impact presenting at ED at the moment where people are turning up with health problems," he said.
"Again, probably because of significant underfunding from the Commonwealth and the health problems need more evaluation.
"That can't be done at Palmerston, or it's unlikely to be done at Palmerston."
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