ROYAL HOBART HOSPITAL CRISIS AGAIN
This afternoon AMA Tasmania has been made aware that the emergency department of the Royal Hobart Hospital is once again severely compromised with current hospital management citing the situation as extreme. To date, to our knowledge, this is the most severe emergency department overcrowding experienced.
This overcrowding exists as a result of there no longer being sufficient space nor human resource left to meet the timely needs of those patients requiring emergency care.
This is coming off the back of last week’s extremely distressing report regarding the unresolved sewerage situation at the RHH causing a Code Yellow and signifying an internal disaster. Last week’s event resulted in many closed treatment spaces adding pressure to an already fragile system operating at escalation level Four. The current operations of our states hospital systems display a complete lack of critical planning by the government.
The Government has shown they are ill-equipped with no backup plans, no short-term solutions, no immediate retention and recruitment processes in place, all of which is putting an immeasurable amount of pressure on already overworked but extremely committed staff.
The AMA demands the Government urgently provide sufficient funds to the Hospital to recruit extra staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital to care for patients, support dedicated overworked staff and reduce ambulance ramping.
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT: John Davis 0488 142 033 – PRESIDENT AMA TASMANIA