Volume 182 - Issue 5
Trends in the use of hospital beds by older people in Australia: 1993–2002
Authors: Len C Gray and Stephen J Duckett
Med J Aust 2005; 182 (5): 252-253. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb06684.x
Published online: 7 March 2005
Published online: 7 March 2005
Len C Gray,* Stephen J Duckett†
* Professor in Geriatric Medicine, University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102; † Professor of Health Policy, Latrobe University, Melbourne, VIC lgrayATsoms.uq.edu.au
In reply: Mackay and Millard have raised some important issues in relation to our analysis. Our article was developed to encourage wider reflection and their response is thus welcomed.
The primary criticism levelled by Mackay and Millard was that we underplayed the importance of supply of beds in our interpretation of the trends. We agree that bed supply is an important driver of utilisation patterns. We acknowledged this, in part, in the discussion as a possible explanation for rising separation and declining bed-utilisation rates in the older patient population. We are also sympathetic to the hypothesis that there may be a process of substitution of same-day separations for multi-day separations.
However, data relating to bed availability are not readily available, and thus could not be included in our study. Our article was designed to highlight different trends between age groups, which have not previously been reported. Now that these trends have been identified, further research and analysis is required to fully explain them, with a view to supporting an intelligent strategy to prepare for future population ageing.