News
Health Policies Not Addressing Gap In Intensive Care Services |
| Spokesperson: | Australian & New Zealand Intensive Care Society |
| Date: | Thursday, 11 May 2006 |
| Category: | National Health News |
| Australia has less than 10 years to address major shortages of intensive care service infrastructure and intensive care specialists, the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) said today. “The current reactive approach by governments at the federal and state levels does not address this looming gap in the health system,” said Dr. Yahya Shehabi, Chairman ANZICS Practice Economics Committee and Director Intensive Care Services, Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. “Australians have benefitted from one of the best intensive care services in the world. However, the current direction will result in a sub-standard medical workforce and a greater malalignment between hospital infrastructure and the health demands of an aging population.” Dr. Shehabi said the impact of the aging population on the demand for intensive care required urgent attention. The latest national annual data of ANZICS on the availability of intensive care beds shows that in 2004-05 there were 5.3 available ICU beds per 100,000 population*. This represents less than half of what will be needed in few years. These figures reflect the need for a greater focus on alignment between the intensive care needs of an aging population and intensive care infrastructure. Dr. Shehabi said the rapid advancement in medical technology was keeping people alive longer with the resultant need for more intensive care units and emergency departments, as well as post-operative care units. Furthermore, sicker patients will be presenting for more complex surgery with heightened community expectation. “Hospitals over the next 10 years will be largely intensive care hospitals with traditional wards disappearing completely, “he said. “This current malalignment between the need to build-up the infrastructure in intensive care to cope with the aging population, along with the need for more doctors to specialise in the area requires urgent attention.” ANZICS recently advised the Productivity Commission that the lack of a sustainable and effective strategy to address the shortage of intensive care specialists in the health system could have ‘disastrous consequences’ on patient outcomes, safety and quality and would only offer Australia a second rate intensive care services. The ‘substitution strategy’ advocated in the final report of the Productivity Commission on Australia’s Health Workforce to overcome workforce shortages was not the answer to the looming problem, said ANZICS. “We cannot have an in-between situation in the health system. There is a need for a steep increase in the number of doctors who specialise in intensive care to cope with this looming demand,” said Dr. Shehabi. “This is a joint societal responsibility; Government policies are lagging in this area and not encouraging doctors to go down this route because they are not providing sufficient incentives for accredited training and certification.” * Includes Public and Private ICU beds physically equipped and staffed. There is significant state by state variation. 4.8 – 7.1 ANZICS is the peak professional and advocacy body for medical practitioners specialising in the treatment and management of critically ill patients in public and private hospitals. ANZICS also leads the world in intensive care research through its Clinical Trials Group and patient databases, including the Adult Patient Database, the Paediatric Intensive Care Registry and the ANZICS Research Centre for Critical Care Resources. |
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