A brand-new purpose-built hospital avoidance hub will open next week for older patients in Adelaide’s southern suburbs to help them avoid unnecessary emergency department visits.

The new specialised CARE Service has just finished construction and will open at the Repat Health Precinct from next Thursday.

Southern suburbs patients will be able to access the new facility which provides an important alternative to the emergency department for older patients who do not require emergency care.

The completion of the six-bed service is the second batch of the Malinauskas Labor Government’s extra beds opened this year, following 10 extra beds in the new Gawler Emergency Department opened earlier this week.

Overall at least 150 newly built beds will be opening this year, providing much-needed increased capacity to the health system. This is part of the Government’s overall plans to open 550 extra beds across the health system.

The new CARE Service replaces an existing service which has been operating at the Repat for two and a half years in a temporary space. In that time it has helped more than 10,000 people avoid an unnecessary visit to the emergency department.

The new purpose-built and larger $3.5 million facility improves the existing service, providing an environment specifically designed for older people to get the care they need.

The service will move next week from within the Repat’s Bangka Strait Ward to its new comprehensively refurbished building, freeing up six overnight beds within Bangka Strait Ward for other step-down patients.

The new home includes six same-day treatment spaces and a purpose-built patient waiting area. The new area also has:

• A family meeting room, to enable multi-disciplinary teams to deliver and plan care to support patients to return home as quickly as possible.
• Undercover access for ambulance and patient arrivals and departures.
• Improved facilities for staff including open plan workspaces, a dedicated break room, office, and storage spaces.

The CARE Service is provided by specialist geriatricians, nursing and allied health staff including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and social workers.

Referrals are made to the service through SA Ambulance Service, emergency departments, residential care homes and GPs. The service is open from 8am until 10pm, seven days per week.

Works to build the new purpose-built CARE Service form part of the $498 million State and Federal Government’s commitment to expand Flinders Medical Centre and the Repat with 160 extra beds for Southern Adelaide.

Further construction to come on the Repat site as part of this investment will see a further 26 beds opening later this year.

The CARE Service is one of a range of initiatives to help increase capacity and reduce bed-block, which contributes to ramping.

In February, ambulances spent 3,757 hours on the ramp, 203 fewer hours than January.

The Lyell McEwin Hospital saw a significant improvement – with 544 ramped hours in February compared to 721 hours in January, a 25 per cent improvement.

For more information about this service visit the CARE Service at SALHN webpage.

Full ramping data, including a hospital by hospital breakdown, can be found here.

Quotes

Attributable to Chris Picton

It’s fantastic to now have a brand-new expanded hospital avoidance hub for older patients in Adelaide’s south to get the care they need without having to go to an emergency department.

It’s not only much better for the individual to avoid the emergency department if they don’t need it, it’s also better for the hospital system, freeing up beds for more serious emergency cases.

Moving this service to a dedicated home on the Repat site will free up six overnight beds in Bangka Strait ward, to provide care to those transitioning from hospital back into the community.

Together with 10 extra beds in the Gawler Emergency Department we have added 16 beds in the course of a week, the first of 150 new beds under construction that we will open this year.

Beds will also open at Flinders Medical Centre, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Lyell McEwin Hospital, and more to come at the Repat.

We know that this extra capacity is essential to reducing bed block which is one of the key drivers of ramping.

It was very positive to see the strong progress made at the Lyell McEwin Hospital this month – and I want to thank all the doctors and nurses who have contributed to that improvement.

Attributable to SALHN Associate Professor Craig Whitehead, Clinical Director, Division of Rehabilitation, Aged Care & Palliative Care

The new space will provide improved facilities to ensure that our clinicians can treat and care for patients in the most efficient and effective way, providing the highest standard of service in the most appropriate environment.

The move will maximise the impacts of this service even further, with the hope that it can prevent even more unnecessary emergency department presentations in the future by providing the best possible bespoke and contemporary care for older generations.