{"id":925877,"date":"2026-10-12T21:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T21:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925877\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T21:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T21:44:14","slug":"health-system-failure-as-older-patients-present-at-tasmanian-emergency-departments-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925877\/","title":{"rendered":"Health system failure as older patients present at Tasmanian emergency departments, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) has warned that Australia’s health system is not equipped for the growing number of older patients presenting in emergency departments.<\/p>\n

The national State of Emergency report, released this morning, said the health system, from primary care, residential aged care, home support, to hospital services, was ailing from insufficient planning.<\/p>\n

It claimed successive federal, state and territory governments had not done enough to prepare for the volume or complexity of care as Australia’s population aged.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

A Tasmanian health professional has called the lack of capacity “a crisis”. (Unsplash<\/a>: Frederic K\u00f6berl<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The report said emergency departments (EDs) were often being left to fill gaps, leading to ambulance ramping, overcrowding, corridor care and access issues.<\/p>\n

Older people represented close to a quarter of the nation’s nearly nine-million presentations. The rate was highest in regional, rural and remote areas.<\/p>\n

Patients left on trolleys or chairs<\/p>\n

ACEM Tasmania branch chair Juan Ascencio-Lane said he did not have to predict what would happen in the state without intervention.<\/p>\n

“We don’t need to look forward \u2014 we are in this crisis right now,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you boil it down, what’s at stake is people’s lives.”\"Man<\/p>\n

Juan Carlos Ascencio-Lane says a fix to the health crisis is needed now. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough )<\/p>\n

Tasmania has Australia’s highest proportion of people aged 65 and over.<\/p>\n

Older people are significantly more likely to be classified in higher urgency categories, arrive by ambulance and be admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n

The report found that between 2018-19 and 2023-24, the number of older attendees at Tasmanian EDs increased by 19 per cent, compared with 2 per cent in younger people, and 17 per cent nationally.<\/p>\n

ACEM recommends that 90 per cent of patients requiring hospital admission access a bed within eight hours, but that occurred only 40 per cent of the time in older patients locally and 54 per cent nationally.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The report found that older people are significantly more likely to be classified in higher urgency categories, arrive by ambulance and be admitted to hospital. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

The report said extended wait times meant the elderly were often left “frail and in pain”, without adequate rest, nutrition and dignity, and vulnerable to deterioration.<\/p>\n

“These patients are often left on a trolley or on a chair in a bright, noisy emergency department where staff are really pushed to the limits to care not just for them, but for the acute new patients,” Dr Ascencio-Lane said.<\/p>\n

He said the toll on staff was “enormous”.<\/p>\n

“We want to provide high-level care, particularly for these older people,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is causing a huge amount of stress and burnout, with nurses and doctors in particular, who are looking for alternatives within their employment.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tasmania has the highest proportion of people aged 65 and over in the nation. (Supplied: Pexels)<\/p>\n

Urgent action needed<\/p>\n

The report projected a 411-per-cent increase in ED arrivals of people aged 85 and over by 2050.<\/p>\n

ACEM has made a series of recommendations and implored governments to take urgent action.<\/p>\n

They include strengthening alternative acute care pathways via programs integrating hospitals, aged care, community services, and Aboriginal health organisations, as well as more telehealth support for residential aged care.<\/p>\n

It also recommended more funding hospitals to deliver more services in the community.<\/p>\n

\"Bags<\/p>\n

The pressure on hospital emergency departments is expected to increase. (ABC News: Jake Grant)<\/p>\n

The not-for-profit group, which trains emergency physicians, also recommended improving patient flow by increasing inpatient beds, and ongoing training for rural EDs to treat patients locally.<\/p>\n

It is also calling for at least 10,000 additional aged care beds by 2028, 24\/7 access to a registered nurse, and incentives to take on residents with complex conditions, dementia or behavioural symptoms.<\/p>\n

Federal, state blame game<\/p>\n

The federal government is responsible for primary and aged care, with states and territories in charge of hospitals.<\/p>\n

State Health Minister Bridget Archer said Tasmanians should not have to rely on hospitals for care, but often had nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

“These Tasmanians are not statistics,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“They are Tasmanians who deserve dignity, compassion, and a proper place to recover, and this growing national crisis demands an immediate response from the Federal Labor Government.”<\/p>\n

Federal Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler said the government had eased hospital pressure through increased funding, more aged care beds, expanded bulk billing and Urgent Care Clinics.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Mark Butler says the federal government has eased hospital pressure through a raft of measures. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

“There are real pressures facing the aged care system right now, and we continue to work with states and territories in good faith,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is time for state governments to deliver on their promises to give Australians access to health services, when and where they need them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) has warned that Australia’s health system is not equipped for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,50028,36506,137,500,4082,152231,8122,165881,8539,2801],"class_list":["post-925877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ed","tag-emergency","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-launceston-general-hospital","tag-medical","tag-rhh","tag-tas","tag-tasmania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}