For two decades, the demand for emergency department services in Australia has outpaced population growth and wait times have increased. In 2022-2023 more than 8.8 million emergency department presentations occurred nationwide.
While demand is a contributing factor, EDs are currently being impacted by various factors across the entire health system.
The Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) is a non-profit organisation funding innovative Australian research that improves the way people are cared for in a medical emergency. The aim of the research is to deliver better and more effective health services to save lives and money.
Professor Hugh Grantham, Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) Chair on the urgent challenges in emergency departments states, “The issue of system-wide delays from triage to admission to treatment and discharge is one of the Australian healthcare system’s most challenging problems and it severely impacts vulnerable patient groups, including aged care and mental health patients.”
In February 2024, the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) launched a $1.3 million fund for new research grants dedicated to addressing the pressing issues in emergency care to improve patient outcomes in Australia.
These projects will include innovative ways to improve pain management in children, treating diabetic patients, and optimising treatment for patients who call an ambulance for nausea or vomiting.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Dr Kim Hansen, Emergency Medicine Foundation Board Director, author & presenter of a broad range of topics including ED crowding, incident reporting, cognitive bias and gender equity.
Since launching in 2007, EMF has fostered significant growth in research and innovation in emergency, prehospital and retrieval medicine across Queensland. These EMF-funded research projects have proved both effective and wide-reaching, with a recent mental health study projected to save the Australian health system $30 million.
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Clinical pain neuroscientist talks about how the brain processes pain information
Persistent pain affects one in five Australians and costs the nation an estimated $73 billion per year in health system costs, lost productivity and other financial costs.
Persistent pain also has debilitating personal costs – negatively impacting quality of life and the ability to engage in meaningful work and life activities.
Despite the enormity of this problem, very few effective treatments exist with most showing only small to moderate improvements. New treatments are desperately needed. The group believes the best way to create impactful change is to work with people with lived experience of persistent pain to devise solutions with them, not for them.
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Message from former Australian Health Minister Hon Greg Hunt
The Honourable Greg Hunt served in the Australian Government as Minster for Health and Aged Care from 2017, previously as Industry, Innovation and Science Minister and before that the Environment Minister.
Elected as the Member for Flinders in 2001, Greg announced his retirement from politics late 2021 and in 2022, ahead of the Federal Election, having completed 20 years as a public servant.
Australian Health Journal recently caught up with Greg in a relaxed interview at his home in the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria to hear how a 9 month sabbatical has allowed him to focus on family, fitness and future. This has even included some “brutal spin cycle classes!”.
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Global GP Conference comes to Australia
Over 3000 delegates from around the World will gather at the 50th celebration of WONCA to reconnect and revive General Practice, sharing knowledge and learnings on access, equity, funding, and multidisciplinary care teams. This includes networking with Australian and overseas GPs and in particular learning about primary care practices in other countries.
Australian Health Journal met with Dr Nicole Higgins, President of RACGP in transit at Brisbane Airport recently and she spoke about the $6 Billion allocated in the Federal Budget in May as a significant achievement for General Practice investment. She also emphasised this announcement reinforced GPs should be at the centre of multidisciplinary care teams to ensure continuity of care and better health outcomes.
