Australia, NZ hospitals can't cope with big attack

Sydney, Apr 16: Australian and New Zealand hospitals could not handle mass casualties from a terrorist attack or natural disaster, with 80 per cent of critical patients unable to receive immediate life-saving surgery, says a report.

The report in The Medical Journal of Australia published today found that Australian hospitals were already operating at near full capacity and would be overwhelmed by patients in the event of a terrorist attack or disaster.

''In a major disaster, the proportion of critically injured patients at risk of being denied immediate access to operating theatres ranged from 59 per cent to 81 per cent in Australia and from 70 per cent to 87 per cent in NZ,'' said the report.

''The proportion of critically injured patients estimated to be denied immediate access to ICU (intensive care unit) beds ranged from 31 per cent to 69 per cent in Australia and from 51 percent to 78 per cent in NZ.'' Australian and New Zealand hospitals did not meet US benchmarks, set after September 11. 2001, for handling mass casualties, said the report, which studied 101 hospitals in thw two countries.

''Hospital surge capacity is defined as the ability to provide acute care to both critical and non-critical mass casualties simultaneously and is a marker of the ability to deliver emergency care in a disaster,'' it said.

''At present, there are no established standards of appropriate physical or human preparedness targets for Australasian hospitals.'' Australia has never had a mass casualty event.

In the event of a disaster up to 80 per cent of acutely injured patients would arrive at the closest medical facilities within 90 minutes after the event, said the report.

Australia's hospital system struggled to cope with 66 patients from the 2002 Bali bombing who arrived over a 21 hours period, it said.

Australia's biggest city Sydney is best placed to handle mass casualties, but even its hospitals would be swamped by patients, said one of the report's authors Dr Tony Joseph.

''If Sydney had a mass casualty involving 300 patients about 30 per cent of those patients, or about 100, would not have immediate access to operating rooms because operating theatres would be overwhelmed,'' Joseph told reporters.

Reuters