There are concerns among Launceston General Hospital staff that poor access to care is impacting recruitment and potentially accreditation, a new report shows.
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A report released under the Right to Information act on Monday afternoon has exposed how Launceston General Hospital clinicians view their workplace.
The report was a review conducted for the Patients First strategy, and was submitted in August 2016.
It said the Patients First review was “prompted by negative media attention” around incidents in the LGH and RHH emergency departments.
The report relayed LGH staff’s answers to a series of questions in August, 2016.
Clinicians’ views could be synthesised as “reasonably happy” but recent events in the emergency department had “been difficult”, the report said.
There was a high-profile spate of nine of 11 emergency department consultants who quit, retired or reduced their hours within a month in mid-2016.
The report said the appointment of a new ED director was viewed positively among staff.
There were concerns delayed access to care was impacting recruitment and potentially accreditation, but a new ED director dramatically improved the outlook, the report said.
In regards to change staff would like to see, staff expressed that the human resources department was “very slow” to fill positions and recruitment was an issue.
Recruitment and retention of specialist emergency physicians was a “major issue” for staff.
Poor access to inpatient beds and delays in ED made maintaining quality of care “very difficult” for dedicated staff members, staff said.
The report said staff felt there was no functioning ED short-stay unit and the “consensus was it was required”, potentially in addition to the Emergency Medical Unit.
“There was agreement with [the] Royal Hobart Hospital concerns about unclear clinical leadership, particularly who to ask to effectively and rapidly facilitate clinical design,” the report said.
LGH staff named world-class innovation, excellent teamwork and successful accreditation as some of the good things about their hospital.
The report claimed that staff morale at RHH and LGH emergency departments was “damaged by adverse media reporting”.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the expert report was commissioned by the state government to “look into the legacy issues” in the health system.
The Review of Access to Emergency Care at the Launceston General Hospital and Royal Hobart Hospital was conducted by Translational Research Institute Clinical Service Improvement and Innovation.
“In response to addressing concerns in the state’s emergency departments, last year we rolled out the Patients First initiative which includes measures to initiate a whole of hospital response and patients who are able to go home, released,” Mr Ferguson said.
He said further measures to alleviate pressure from the RHH would be announced on Tuesday. He said there would be additional supports for the North and North-West.