HOSPITALS — BED CAPACITY
145. Ms L. METTAM to the Premier:
I refer to the Premier's
comments yesterday on Nova 93.7, when he stated that there are available
hospital beds that are not being used in
case of a plane crash or similar event. Why are desperately needed hospital
beds not being utilised in the case of a hypothetical plane crash, when
those beds are needed to deal with a health crisis now?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
The way the health system has
worked, basically forever, is that it occupies between 85 and 90 per cent of
beds. Governments, going back forever, have had about 85 to 90 per cent of the
beds occupied because there is always a turnover of beds. There are people
leaving hospitals and hospital staff need to clean rooms, fumigate and do all
the practices that they put in place to make sure that rooms are clean and
ready to be occupied by the next patient. That is the way the health system
works. When it gets to about 90 per cent capacity, that is about the maximum
capacity that can be occupied in a hospital. If 100 per cent of beds are
occupied, there is no capacity for anyone coming in who might be an emergency.
Hypothetically, if every single hospital bed is occupied and there is a car
crash or plane crash, there will not be beds available for people. That is the
way the system has worked forever, including when the opposition was in office.
The way doctors and hospital administrators have run our hospital system for
decades is based upon long experience and best practice. That has been in place
over successive governments and it is a system that health professionals across
Australia advise us is the way to operate.