Nurses for police lockups to cut hospital visits

The federal government has gone out to tender to make use of nurses on the Metropolis Watch Home, Elizabeth, Port Adelaide, Christies Seaside and Port Augusta police cells over 5 years.

In response to tender paperwork launched this week, the nurses could be tasked with treating injured SA Law enforcement officials, conducting forensic procedures on detainees and enterprise COVID-19 testing and an infection management. The nurses wouldn’t drug take a look at detainees.

The federal government states the “Nurses in Custodial Services” program, to start subsequent yr at a value of $13.9 million throughout the ahead estimates, would unencumber sources at SA Well being and SA Police, as law enforcement officials would now not want to move detainees with non-urgent medical situations to hospital emergency departments to obtain remedy.

It follows a trial on the Elizabeth Police Station in 2019, throughout which registered nurses assessed the psychological wellbeing of all detainees as they had been taken into custody, managed their treatment and performed first support.

“Profitable trials of the Nurses in Custodial amenities program discovered that inserting nurses in custodial settings lowered the necessity for police to attend a hospital with detainees,” Police and Correctional Providers Minister Joe Szakacs advised InDaily. 

“The trials discovered that medic nurses present operational efficiencies for SAPOL and SA Well being by means of the diversion of detainees from emergency departments.

“Embedded nurses unencumber police to maintain them on the entrance line – not ready on hospitals guarding detainees.”

The Australiasian Faculty for Emergency Drugs has beforehand known as on the federal government to introduce a custodial well being service to supply healthcare for these underneath arrest.

The faculty’s South Australian chair Dr Michael Edmonds mentioned the service might scale back pressure on emergency departments.

“If correctly deliberate, resourced, supported, and reviewed, it’s the Faculty’s place that the Nurses in Custodial Services program might assist extra police and detainees to obtain the acute healthcare they want, sooner, and probably present a neighborhood discount in displays to emergency departments,” he mentioned.

Of the 1666 detainees who had been arrested on the Metropolis Watch Home between January 1 and March 30 this yr, 589 – or 35 per cent – acquired medical care.

The second greatest police custodial facility within the state, the Elizabeth Police Station, detained 1218 suspects throughout that point, of whom 512 – or 42 per cent – acquired medical consideration.

At 9am this morning, SA Well being’s emergency division dashboard confirmed Flinders Medical Centre and Lyell McEwin Hospital had been at “code white”, which means all of their remedy rooms had been in use.

Lyell McEwin Hospital reported the longest emergency division wait time at 433 minutes – over seven hours.

Busy occasions at LMH ED and throughout the system. pic.twitter.com/otIVK4r7Ck

— SASMOA (@sasmoa4doctors) September 12, 2022