Four geriatric care beds at the Queen Elizabeth Centre will close next year as Ballarat Health Services trials a new focus of care for elderly patients.
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Jodie Cranham, executive director of aged operations at BHS, said the geriatric evaluation management ward across the hospital was being reshuffled to provide better care for the elderly and allow for more acute and in-home services.
The Australian Nursing and Midwife Federation (Victorian Branch) claimed the bed closure would compromise patient access and was a response to a change in staffing ratios due to be implemented under the Safe Patient Care Amendment Act in March 2020.
They claimed the ratio changes meant BHS would have to roster an additional nurse on the hospital's GEM ward on night duty to meet a ratio of one nurse to 10 patients.
Ms Cranham said the change had nothing to do with ratios, but was about more efficient use of the funding available.
"We are looking at our model of care and delivery of care in the best setting for patients," she said. "Sometimes being in bed is not the best place for patients to be."
Ms Cranham said the interim findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety showed "the elderly population don't really want to be in a bed whether it's a hospital bed or aged care bed, they want to be in their home as quickly as possible".
As part of the overhaul, more resources will funneled in to acute care in specialist geriatric care beds that have been opened at Ballarat Base Hospital this year, and in-home services.
"This year we have opened up seven beds at Base Hospital which are available for the more acutely unwell, whereas previously they were not getting a geriatric service in the acute beds then they would come across to us at the Queen Elizabeth Centre," she said.
"Some of those patients will still come to QE, but we are looking to extend GEM in the home next year."
The ANMF have visited Wendouree MP Juliana Addison to voice their concerns about patient access as a result of the proposed bed closures, fearing it will extend patient waiting times in the emergency department.
"There is extraordinary demand for care within the Ballarat Base Hospital geriatric evaluation management ward, with on average 23.5 out of 24 beds full at all times in the past 12 months," said ANMF (Victoria) secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick.
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