Ward beds replaced with chairs for faster treatment

Canberra Hospital officials say replacing beds with chairs in the emergency department has enabled staff to see more patients more quickly.

Liberal health spokesman Jeremy Hanson yesterday told an Assembly committee hearing he had been approached by constituents who had been unhappy about being placed in chairs instead of beds when they required treatment in the emergency department.

Canberra Hospital critical care executive director Kate Jackson told the hearing some treatment beds had been replaced with chairs.

''It did allow us to increase our treatment capacity so we were able to, where three trolleys were, replace them with five [chairs],'' Ms Jackson said. Over the next year, the emergency department will be expanded into the front ambulance bay to create four extra treatment spaces and up to six treatment spaces will be built at the back of the unit.

Statistics to be issued at an emergency medicine conference today will show the number of patients presenting at Australian emergency patients is growing by about 3.7 per cent, double the level of population growth.

Study author Professor Drew Richardson also found the introduction in Western Australia of a four-hour target for emergency patients to be discharged or admitted to hospital had improved the performance of casualty departments. The target is set to be rolled out nationally.