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After Hours and Emergency Departments
What is the Emergency Department (ED)?
- Where people of all ages with acute and emergency health problems are assessed and treated
- Open for care 24 hours 7 days a week
- Most people presenting to ED as acute patients and have not seen their GP before coming to hospital
- People presenting to the ED are usually seen initially by the Triage nurse
- Patients are then assessed and treated by the Emergency Medicine doctors and nurses
- Patients are then either discharged or referred to other services for admission or further investigation and treatment
- Patients referred to hospital by a GP or Primary Care provider will be directed to the ADU or if they have a more serious illness to the ED by the Triage nurse
- Other specialty services with doctors working in the ED include:
- General Medicine
- General Surgery
- Orthopaedics
- Obstetrics & Gynaecology
- Paediatrics
- Mental Health
What is Triage?
- All patients presenting to the ED are triaged by a senior nurse according to the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS)
- The nurse determines the nature and severity of the illness or injury
- On the basis of this assessment, those with more severe symptoms or injuries are treated before those with less serious conditions