Geraldton Hospital: ‘Critical staff shortages’ threaten regional emergency department, leaked email reveals

The emergency department at a big country hospital was able to fill only 12 per cent of its medical roster at times in January before officials had to plead for urgent reinforcements, a leaked email reveals. In an internal memo on New Year’s Eve, WA Country Health Service chief executive Jeff Moffet warned colleagues the Geraldton Hospital ED faced a “critical medical staff shortage” with the potential to “impact significantly on service continuity and safety”. Though WACHS managed to backfill shifts through its rapid deployment pool, the letter makes for troubling reading. “Endeavours to fill shifts have been exhausted within the Mid West and within WACHS,” Mr Moffet wrote. “This is a busy essential emergency service seeing approx 35,000/year and service continuity and safety are at risk with ordinary medical coverage reduced to 12-30 per cent of usual over two critical weeks. “The roster is normally 11 doctors (per) 24 hours and has managed at seven lowest. For the imminent period Monday 10 — Friday 23 of January the medical roster coverage is down to two shifts of 11 filled, and three of 11 at other times.” Mr Moffet requested his message be escalated to metro health service providers to try to recruit two doctors for each week in that fortnight, a task WACHS accomplished. WACHS did not specify the exact number of staff it recruited for these weeks but stressed that the ED would be able function properly. Mr Moffet recognised WACHS healthcare staff were under “significant pressure”. “Like most hospitals and health services, we’re working in the context of global workforce shortages that have been exacerbated by the ongoing demands of the pandemic,” he said. “The fact is remote healthcare providers across Australia are more reliant on being able to import their workforce. “That’s because attracting and maintaining residential staff in regional areas has always been difficult — despite competitive salaries and generous incentives.” AMA WA President Dr Mark Duncan-Smith urged the government to deal with poor morale amongst staff in the country. “Although there are general staff shortages in WA, this seems to be amplified in the country, in part due to failure to acknowledge and deal with these fundamental cultural issues,” he said. “How can we be ready for COVID, when COVID is not here and we can’t even do business as usual?”