Australia, NZ hospitals can't cope with big attack
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Australia, NZ hospitals can't cope with big attack*
16 Apr 2007 03:14:37 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, April 16 (Reuters) - Australian and New Zealand hospitals could
not handle mass casualties from a terrorist attack or natural disaster,
with 80 percent of critical patients unable to receive immediate
life-saving surgery, says a report.
The report in The Medical Journal of Australia published on Monday found
that Australian hospitals were already operating at near full capacity
and would be overwhelmed by patients in the event of a terrorist attack
or disaster.
"In a major disaster, the proportion of critically injured patients at
risk of being denied immediate access to operating theatres ranged from
59 percent to 81 percent in Australia and from 70 percent to 87 percent
in NZ," said the report.
"The proportion of critically injured patients estimated to be denied
immediate access to ICU (intensive care unit) beds ranged from 31
percent to 69 percent in Australia and from 51 percent to 78 percent in NZ."
Australian and New Zealand hospitals did not meet U.S. benchmarks, set
after Sept 11. 2001, for handling mass casualties, said the report,
which studied 101 hospitals in thw two countries.
"Hospital surge capacity is defined as the ability to provide acute care
to both critical and non-critical mass casualties simultaneously and is
a marker of the ability to deliver emergency care in a disaster," it said.
"At present, there are no established standards of appropriate physical
or human preparedness targets for Australasian hospitals."
Australia has never had a mass casualty event.
In the event of a disaster up to 80 percent of acutely injured patients
would arrive at the closest medical facilities within 90 minutes after
the event, said the report.
Australia's hospital system struggled to cope with 66 patients from the
2002 Bali bombing who arrived over a 21 hours period, it said.
Australia's biggest city Sydney is best placed to handle mass
casualties, but even its hospitals would be swamped by patients, said
one of the report's authors Dr Tony Joseph.
"If Sydney had a mass casualty involving 300 patients about 30 percent
of those patients, or about 100, would not have immediate access to
operating rooms because operating theatres would be overwhelmed," Joseph
told reporters.