Hospital clarifies ‘screening’

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 5

Hospital clarifies ‘screening’

The new screening system at The Princess Margaret Hospital will ensure that non-acute medical patients of all ages are not admitted to acute medical wards, according to the hospital’s superintendent, Dr John McLeod. Dr McLeod was concerned that statements attributed to him, in a report of the Canterbury Hospital Board meeting in ‘The Press” yesterday had unnecessarily worried elderly people in Canterbury. The statement that elderly people might, as a result of the screening system, be sent home rather than admitted was not correct, he said. The screening holding unit, which opened on Monday, was intended to prevent non-acute patients, irrespective of age, from being admitted to acute medical beds. people

medical problems would continue to be admitted to acute medical wards, but those with non-acute problems would be admitted to other beds, or, if it was appropriate, not admitted. The screening unit was run by the acute medical team of the day, which would assess the priority for admission of patients, he said. There was no intention to reduce or withdraw services for the elderly, although some might find it more difficult to gain admission to an acute bed. Elderly patients without acute medical conditions would still be referred to the hospital’s geriatric assessment unit, said Dr McLeod. The screening system is one of the measures introduced by the Canterbury Hospital Board’s joint working party with the Nurses’

Association to relieve pressure on staff at the hospital. The chairman of the Canterbury Aged People’s Welfare Council, Dr Graham Riley, said it should be up to the doctor who referred an elderly patient to the hospital and the hospital’s geriatric assessment unit to decide whether short-term or long-term hospital care was appropriate. “It seems extraordinary to set up a new screening unit, obviously aimed primarily at older patients, when the assessment unit set up for this purpose has 10 beds lying idle because staff say the workload is too great.”

The Canterbury Hospital Board had already done a lot for the elderly but had to maintain its progress and ensure that the geriatric services were given high priority. Dr McLeod’s comment

that to cope with fewer admissions the community would have to “roll up its sleeves and look after them itself,” was unjustified, said Dr Riley.

Families in Christchurch generally cared for their older folk and only when there was a crisis did they call in a doctor for referral to a hospital. The Welfare Council tried to help elderly people keep their independence. The fact that the average age for long-term admissions was now 85 years was a testament to the success of the community support system, he said. The acting head of The Princess Margaret Hospital’s geriatric services, Dr Reginald Goldson, said that the screening unit should have no effect on the geriatric assessment unit but should relieve the pressure on acute medical beds. patients with

medical conditions or acute social crises (not acute medical conditions) were admitted to the assessment unit. The aim of the unit was to return to elderly people the independence they had lost. About 70 per cent of the admissions returned to the community. Most of the remaining 30 per cent were admitted to hospital for long-term care. Because of the closing of 10 of the 66 beds because of an administrative crisis last November, however, “our wings have been clipped in terms of what we can do for elderly people.” The unit’s remaining beds were always full and people could wait up to four weeks for admission, he said. Obviously, if the assessment units had more beds the pressure on acute medical beds would be relieved, he said.