Jasmin Charles: Essay Why are the waiting times in Public hospital emergency Departments so long? What contributes to this? What are we doing too address this problem? Waiting times in public hospital have been a big issue in the media lately. Politicians addressing these issues and using them as a bargaining point in their campaigns by making promises to fix the current health care problem by extra funding or a re-form in the health care. Public health patients featuring in the media stating how long they have had to wait to get medical attention by a Dr or wait till a vacant bed arises.
The pressure on the local, State and federal government, Doctors, Nurses and all staff to provide the public with a high quality, appropriate, safe, available & co-coordinated service to meet the needs of growing patient numbers in an acceptable time. With all of these issues, what are we really doing to fix it? In the premier’s 10/11 (1) health budget report, the NSW state budget increased by 8. 6% from last year, that’s an extra 1. 3 billion dollars.
In that same report “ The Premiers Message” she stated “ on April 10th a historical agreement was reached with the government”, she goes on to say “ combined with other funding, this brings the total funding for NSW health to 2. 1 Billion over 4 years”, “ this funding means more beds, more timely planned surgery and better access to emergency treatment. ” (2)In the last 5 years 3. Billion was invested in health facilities, almost every major hospital and emergency department has been either re-built or upgraded since 1995. This shows the state and federal government recognizes the issues and is making significant progress in finding an outcome. In 2010/2011 the overview of the priorities are; (3) “ improving and maintaining access to quality healthcare in the face of increasing demands, target, meet and maintain a bench bar for timely access to Emergency departments and surgical treatment and reduce the incident of infection in NSW public hospitals”.
In a recent survey conducted by NSW health, (4), it showed that from 2007-2009 for non-admitted public patients who visited the Emergency Department , an increase of overall performance had risen from 81. 7 % to 82. 6%. Although patients had stated that the overall care was “ very good” they also stated that to receive that care they had to wait an “ un-satisfactory time”. Not only does The Pressure fall on the government, but also the staff that are the first base contact for health services. 5) Nurses Union have reported in the last 5 years more of their member are taking stress leave and are reporting less job satisfaction.
(6)“ The increased expectations on the staff are taking their toll” stated one Nurse. “ all the more patients , more things to do, but our pay stays the same, its not worth the stress, nursing is about caring, but who cares about us? ” The report also noted an increase in nurses’ working hours from 32. 5 hours in 2003 to 33. 3 hours in 2007. We would like to see this trend change because any increase in working hours results in more pressure for our nurses on the ground. “ The nursing workforce continues to age with the proportion of nurses aged 50 years and over increasing from 28% in 2003 to 33% in 2007.
“ The ageing workforce continues to present challenges to our health care system. Nurses provide allot of health care services in Australia. With 40% of the nursing workforce due to retire in the next 10 years, we need to boost nursing undergraduate places and make the profession more attractive,” Ms Kearney said. Due to the increases in patients visiting the NSW public Hospitals, and the demands on all medical staff, the government has had to allow extra funding to support the demanding pressure. By increasing funding, they are allowing extra patients services, increasing after hour services, reducing emergency waiting times and employing more staff such as extra Nurses and General practitioners to cope and lessen the pressure on the individual. They have proven results and are planning to improve on these in the next decade.
REFERENCE Linnell. C ” Let the workers run the business” The Dailey Telergrah 7th April p22 Hall. B “ high school essay planner” 2009 Fairfax media. Pyrmont Sydney Australian Nursing Federation “ Medilecon Internation” Ltd bexhill UK Etd 2004 “ NSW Health Budget 2009/2010” Premier’s report. “ NSW Health Budget 2010/2011” Premier’s reprt.
NSW health 2009 “ NSW state report” executive summary feb 2009 http://www. health. nsw. gov. au/aboutus/budget/index.
asp http://healthactionplan. nsw. gov. au. theme-01-stage-1. php http://www.
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