Radical changes to the sa health system

[sduffy]

The government has just announced some radical changes to the healthcare system here in South Australia.

 

There are talking about closing the emergency Dept at Noarlunga which i think for people of the south is a detrimental decision.

 

In addition they are planning to close the Repat Hospital,my family have used that facility extensively particularly the SleepClinic which has some top drs.

 

The Health Minister maintains that these changes have been made following extensive consultation with medical professionals.

 

Whenever i have been to Flinders ED there have been lengthy queues how can closing Noarlunga ED possibly help that.

 

I have witnessed centralising in the Uk and it never seems to work.In addition the practicalities of centralising surgical cases to the city for people living in the South isnt easy either.

 

Eye surgery to be conducted at Modbury hospital,for those down South that is a probably a 3-4 hr round trip.

 

What do people think ??????????

 

Sue

[Blossom]

I had most of my kidney scans and both pregnancy scans at the repat. They were amazing. They managed to fit me in within a day a few times. The staff were great. It was a Dr from the repat who drove straight over to flinders to see me when my pregnancy was affecting my kidneys. He was there half an hour after my ob phoned to ask what to do.

Parking is always easy there too as a bonus. My car won't even fit into flinders car park!

I've already signed a petition to keep the repat open.

[zebedee]

Bad news for the South if Noarlunga ED is closed down, been there a couple of times with injured children and they have been great (and its always been busy). Maybe with the new express way opening they think Flinders is more accessible.

[sduffy]

Possibly is more accessible by road,but usually chaos when you get there,thats the problem.

 

Are they going to massively be expanding the dept and putting on more staff,cant see it.

 

We have always been very happy with the Repat,seems madness to close such an excellent facility.

 

Sue

[sduffy]

They were saying on the news tonight that they are concerned that Modbury hospital may close in the future.Hope not.They seem very keen to push centralising.

 

Time will tell i guess,certainly big changes on the way ,one way or another.

[Toni]

It is a worry for the families of patients too. Can you imagine having someone really ill and then having to travel a long distance for a few weeks and then on top of that having to pay the really high parking fees because taking a bus or train would be out of the question.

[sduffy]

Totally agree Toni,having a sick relation is bad enough,but all the extra travelling time and costs will certainly exacerbate the stress of it all.

 

Sue

[Blossom]

I had bad kidney pain last year. It properly hit when I was in Goolwa. That drive back towards town was terrible. I actually wish I'd know Noarlunga had an a&e department. I ended up going to Marion domain as I was driving a works van and there is NO WAY I'd have found anywhere near flinders to park it. The Dr who saw me (after I colapsed in their toilets) was telling me off for not going to A&E, but I honestly didn't think I had that option.

The more A&E departments the better. Having to travel while sick is not good.

[cliffy]

I sympathise, I have driven 200km back to Adelaide with a passenger in great pain and distress to be admitted to RAH. I don't ever want to do that again, and when we got to A&E and they rushed him straight through, the first thing they asked was "why didn't you call an ambulance"

You probably should have gone to Victor Harbor, I think the hospital is called South Coast District. Most country hospitals have an A&E with doctors from the local practices on call and can transfer you by ambulance to the appropriate city hospital for admission or treatment.

[coolerking]

Bad news for the South if Noarlunga ED is closed down, been there a couple of times with injured children and they have been great (and its always been busy). Maybe with the new express way opening they think Flinders is more accessible.

 

I totally agree, it needs expanding as the South is growing. Problem is lack of ICU and HDU means many are transfered on anyway.

 

Cooler

[cliffy]

Bad news for the South if Noarlunga ED is closed down, been there a couple of times with injured children and they have been great (and its always been busy). Maybe with the new express way opening they think Flinders is more accessible.

 

As far as I can work out, (not having read the Health paper, just been told by someone who has) Noarlunga is going to remain open for cases which can be fixed there, like broken bones, and will be more like a clinic rather than an Emergency dept.

[Toni]

I have read some of document. If it were to work as well as they say which I am not convinced about, it would mean that ambulance people will have a lot more responsibility to ensure you get sent to the right hospital and that certain conditions will be treated more quickly which will have a better outcome for the patient. They say they are going to have these specialist hospitals that treat certain conditions for example stroke and they will provide 24/7 senior specialist care which presumably means they don't currently do that. The advantage of this is if you are treated within an hour for a stroke then you can expect a full recovery whereas currently hospitals don't necessarily have the senior specialists 24/7. (I was suprised to read this actually.)

 

The concern that I have is that they don't consider the importance on the wellbeing of patients if their families aren't able to visit as much as they could if they lived nearby. That it would mean that there will be more work for the nurses to do like feed patients and monitor them a lot more. Whenever I have had family in hospital I used to be there to feed them and to assist them with personal care and also to translate for them. Patients tend to feel less stressed & disoriented when they have a family friendly face near them. I think people get better quicker when they are less stressed too and I don't think they take this into account.

 

Another problem I can see is that if you don't call an ambulance and just turn up at a hospital, then most people won't know what hospital is the right one to go to - to get the right treatment. (I suppose for most serious issues then most people would call an ambulance - but you can get caught out because some illnesses that present as a flu could end up being more serious). Anyway I guess I care about this because a few family members have been in hospital and I think that if they received the right care that their quality of life would have been better.

 

If anyone wants to read the document and provide feedback then SA Health has said they are interested in feedback by 27-2-15. Really encourage you to have your say as this is important for our state.

 

http://transforminghealth.sa.gov.au/

Edited February 7, 2015 by Toni

[Blossom]

I had to go to flinders from an appointment this afternoon. My car is too big for their multi-storey so I have to look for the spaces on the street outside. It was PACKED. I had to do three loops before getting a space. On walking past the car park I saw that the car park was actually full, so everyone had no choice but to look for spaces outside.

 

How on earth are they going to deal with more patients when they don't have enough parking already? Crazy.

[sduffy]

Blossom,my thoughts exactly,often i have to take hubby to park up as we have often ended up the hill and with having asthma hot weather for me is just not feasible.

 

The parking situation is already appalling,dont know what they are thinking .

 

Sue

[Blossom]

There weren't even spaces up there. Crazy.

[Guest Guest75]

Please keep an eye on this situation, the health department were talking of scaling down the casualty dept and consolidating it with Flinders.

 

Ridiculous !! Flinders is another 15 minutes away and the population is growing!

 

Lots of Facebook pages /petitions.

 

They may be reconsidering but lut us keep the health department and government on it's toes!!!

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-24/sa-government-to-reconsider-scaling-back-noarlunga-hospital/6256072

[snifter]

I read about this a while back and thought it was a bit short sighted of them. As to what will happen, who knows. Perhaps petitions will help.

[Lazy Cow]

As to what will happen, who knows..

 

So true. It's not like there has to be any reason us poor old voters have to understand.

 

Apparently, many of the 50,000 people that use the Emergency Department (ED) each year will be expected to cross the road to the GP Plus building. The rest would go elsewhere, probably to places like Flinders with no extra parks / facilities added to cope.

 

That said, this doesn't seem to be set in stone with ABC reporting that Health Minister Jack Snelling has already said he's listened and might reconsider.

 

Let's hope reason prevails. For a change lol!

 

In the meantime I aim to sign every relevant petition I come across!

 

LC

 

 

*http://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au

[snifter]

So true. It's not like there has to be any reason us poor old voters have to understand.

 

Apparently, many of the 50,000 people that use the Emergency Department (ED) each year will be expected to cross the road to the GP Plus building. The rest would go elsewhere, probably to places like Flinders with no extra parks / facilities added to cope.

 

That said, this doesn't seem to be set in stone with ABC reporting that Health Minister Jack Snelling has already said he's listened and might reconsider.

 

Let's hope reason prevails. For a change lol!

 

I really don't think they thought it through properly and now all the pitfalls and shortcomings are being pointed out to them they are realising they need far better planning and spending to actually make something like this happen. Flinders is creaking badly already and I doubt they want more pressure on their services either.

 

I did wonder if the opening of the expressway perhaps made someone think they could send more serious cases via that route from down south so bypassing the hospital at Noarlunga. There are still the people further down south who need access within a reasonable timeframe to a proper ER.

 

Having said that, I don't think living 45 minutes under blue light from an ER/A&E is unusual. Its about how far we were in the UK when living rural. Even the walk in emergency clinic was about a 20-25 minute drive for us. But in a built up suburban area like this, with facilities evenly spread out, to try to do away with a working ER that covers those southern suburbs further out and scale it back like this seems pretty daft.

[Lazy Cow]

I really don't think they thought it through properly and now all the pitfalls and shortcomings are being pointed out to them they are realising they need far better planning and spending to actually make something like this happen.

 

That certainly has a ring of truth to it, Snifter!

 

LC