IT’S far from ideal when paramedics are forced to sit by their patients for up to two hours outside Albury and Wodonga hospitals because there are limited or no beds available.
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One health worker yesterday described how Albury Wodonga Health was forced to place Wodonga on a “double code red” and Albury on a “code red”.
Patients are on stretchers inside the hospitals under the supervision and treatment of paramedics but some can wait up to 2½ hours before a ward bed becomes available.
The health service’s chief, Dr Stuart Spring, admits the “ramping” of ambulance vehicles is a problem that will not go away even with the recent makeover of the Wodonga emergency department.
An ongoing rise in the number of patients transported to the emergency departments for treatment will also see the problem worsen.
A short-term solution is having the hospitals open more beds, including some short-stay beds planned for the Albury emergency department within the next few weeks.
The real answer will come with the development of a new emergency department at Albury. Planning is in its early stages and it will be some time before the new department is open to patients.
