Our hospital emergency departments are currently buckling under immense pressures. To address the unprecedented crisis facing the country’s health care system, the Radiotherapy team are joined by Emergency and Acute Medical Unit Physician and Health in the Home practitioner, Dr Mya Cubitt.

“The stories are pretty confronting,” she explains. “Essentially what we’re describing is overcrowding. We’ve got an emergency department that is full of patients that are unwell…but unable to move onto that next expert phase of care. So they are stuck in ED. Some of them are stuck there two and three days.”

“[And they are] not overcrowded with people who do not need to be there – they all have significant illness. That is why we are seeing the quality and safety issues. They all need to be there they all need expert hospital-level care.”

Mya details the increasing issues of quality of care, “Access Block” and retaining senior level staff who are rapidly leaving their professions.

Listen to the full interview below.