Following media reports residents are being left in aged care homes under heavy sedation in order to free up hospital beds, the Federal Health Minister has directed hospitals to admit all infected COVID-19 patients for treatment – regardless of age.
“We have that agreement now from the Victorian government,” he said. “I know there are some facilities that have reported resistance at local hospital level and wherever that has been the case, we’ve taken it up either with the hospital system or Victoria.”
But the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) President John Bonning (pictured right) is calling for a national strategy to move non-critical aged care patients out of hospitals as much as possible, saying they are leading to a growing backlog of people needing emergency treatment.
“We’ve got numerous examples today, in emergency departments in Melbourne, of patients waiting more than 24 hours in ED for beds,” he told the ABC.
Some aged care homes have been fully evacuated recently with all residents – COVID positive and negative – moved to hospital.
The stand-off highlights the dilemma: where do you send frail and vulnerable residents who may still yet test positive?
Victoria’s aged care sector has over 2,000 active COVID-19 cases and has reported more than 200 deaths since the outbreak.
