Pilot program to help quadriplegic patients return home

6/12/06
A new State Government program will help quadriplegic patients who need special equipment to breathe move back home after spending years in hospital.
Health Minister Jim McGinty said the $3.1million pilot program would allow four high-dependency patients to leave Royal Perth Hospital's Shenton Park Rehabilitation Campus and live in the community.
The four patients were all permanently ventilated and would require ongoing, high-level care for the rest of their lives.
"Remaining in a hospital environment for the long term could cause social and psychological problems for these four men, even though they need permanent care," Mr McGinty said.
"It is heartening to see that these Western Australians will now be able to leave hospital and return to their families and community."
After two years in hospital, 21-year-old Shane Agnew will return to his Mandurah home in February.
Mr Agnew was left paralysed after an off-road motorbike accident in February 2005.
He was judged fit for discharge in December last year, but could not afford the equipment and carers necessary for him to live at home.
Mr Agnew said he would move back in with his parents initially, he eventually hoped to live more independently in his own home.
"It is great to be going home, at the same time there are a lot of challenges ahead," Mr Agnew said.
"Life will never be quite the same, however I appreciate this opportunity to live outside the hospital, see my friends and family and live a life that is closer to what I would have if I had not had this accident."
The pilot program will provide him with equipment including a cough assist machine, two ventilators, two suction machines, as well as an electric bed and an air mattress.
The State Government will also fund 24-hour-a-day carers and a part-time nurse to oversee his clinical needs.
The Minister said the total cost of caring for ventilated patients at home was $526,000 annually, less than half the cost of providing permanent hospital care for these patients.
He said the men's return home would also free up beds in the hospital's spinal unit for acute patients.
The other three patients returning home under the program were:

• Robert Mills, 59, who was the first of the men to return home when he was discharged in early November after spending more than three years in hospital. Mr Mills sustained his injury in Kalgoorlie on July 27, 2004 after he fell 1.5m from a crane. He is now living with his wife, son, daughter and two grandchildren in Ellenbrook.

• Chris Fong, 28, will return to his home town of Broome in January to live in a Homeswest house that is being converted for his needs. Mr Fong has been in hospital for more than four years, the longest stay of the four men. He was injured while play-wrestling with a friend in 2002; and

• a fourth patient (who has asked not to be named) has chosen to move into the Quadriplegic Centre in March.

Shenton Park clinical nurse manager Anne Watts said that without the funding the men would never be able to live outside the hospital.
"This will be the first time in Western Australia where we have discharged a patient who has not received an injury compensation payout,'' she said.
The safety and effectiveness of the pilot program will be assessed in mid 2007 to determine if the men can remain at home permanently and whether other patients can benefit.
Minister's office - 9422 3000