Emergency respite in RACFs

Background:

The Ageing Well Initiative aims to improve the outcomes for people aged 75 years and older in The Prince Charles Hospital catchment area. Significant consultation has been undertaken with a range of stakeholders including General Practitioners, RACFs, NGOs, hospital clinicians, allied health, Indigenous providers and consumers, their families and their carers. Availability of emergency respite was prioritised as a need throughout the region and stakeholders considered that transparency and visibility of emergency respite bed availability could improve health outcomes for older people. We are hoping to further understand emergency respite availability in the TPCH and the appetite among RACFs to provide information to clinicians across the sector to improve the patient journey for those people who may require emergency respite for any number of reasons.

Consultation Objectives:

• Determine how many facilities take emergency respite patients and timeliness of transfer
• Determine current capacity of facilities especially for emergency respite
• Determine the barriers to accepting patients for emergency respite
• Determine appetite for sharing information across the sector