MELBOURNE, Oct 13 — Emergency departments at Australian hospitals are unprepared for the country’s ageing population, a report has warned, according to Xinhua.
The report released on Tuesday by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) said almost nine million people sought care at emergency departments nationwide in 2023-24, a quarter of whom were aged 65 and over.
Within that age group, more than half arrived at hospital by ambulance, almost 70 per cent needed urgent care and 50 per cent were admitted to a hospital bed, compared with less than a quarter of younger patients.
It said 53,510 older patients spent longer than 24 hours in emergency departments awaiting a hospital bed in 2023-24, up 254 per cent from 15,084 in 2018-19, while only 54 per cent of older patients who needed admission left the emergency department within the eight-hour target.
