Australian Emergency Departments Unprepared For Aging Population: Report

MELBOURNE, Oct 13 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Emergency departments at Australia's hospitals are unprepared for the country's ageing population, a report has warned, according to Xinhua.

The report released on Tuesday from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) said that almost 9 million people sought care at emergency departments nationwide in 2023-24, a quarter of whom were aged 65 and over.

Within that age group, it said 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 to less than one quarter of younger patients.

It said that 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 who did so in 2018-19, while only 54 per cent of older patients who needed admission left the emergency department within the eight-hour target.

A landmark intergenerational report released by the federal Treasury in September projected that the proportion of the Australian population aged 65 and over would grow from 17.8 per cent currently to 24.8 per cent by 2066.

The ACEM report projected that emergency department arrivals for people aged 85 and over will increase by 411 per cent by 2050.

"Our health system and its workforce are just not equipped for this demographic change," ACEM President Peter Allely said in a media release.

"Unless these serious issues are addressed as a matter of urgency, emergency care will come too late for many Australians."

The report made several recommendations to federal, state and territory governments on how to address the issue, including improving integration between hospitals and aged care, increased funding and a rapid expansion of the residential aged care sector.  

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA