Trauma surgeons shortage fuelling hospital beds crisis
Posted
The State Government is under more pressure over Queensland hospitals.
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) says the lack of availability of emergency theatres and trauma surgeons is contributing to a drastic bed shortage at public hospitals.
RACS spokesman Professor Ian Gough says the lack of access to beds and operating theatres for elective surgery could be addressed by effectively quarantining services within major hospitals.
He says hospitals should have a dedicated trauma surgeon and an emergency theatre available on-call at all times.
"You put on a team of surgeons led by a consultant who are on call only for emergencies for a defined period of time," he said.
"They don't do any elective work at all if they are rostered on in that way and they have an operating theatre that's available then they are able to treat the patients much faster."
Professor Gough says it has been trialled elsewhere and it works.
"If there is such a workload that one operating theatre is insufficient and it has to work late into the night and the early hours of the morning and take overflow from the day before, then clearly there needs to be another operating theatre dedicated to emergency services," he said.
