The staggering wait times for patients being brought in by ambulance at Queensland hospitals has been fully revealed with new demands for more resources, improved triaging and ‘real time monitoring’. SEE HOW YOUR HOSPITAL IS AFFECTED
New data shows public hospitals at Bundaberg, Caboolture, Cairns, Robina, Hervey Bay, Ipswich, Logan, Mackay Base, Brisbane’s Mater, Prince Charles, and Princess Alexandra all recorded ramping times of more than seven hours between August 2022 and February 2023.
In the worst case, at Princess Alexandra Hospital, a patient waited on a stretcher for eight hours.
Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates, who had asked then Health Minister Yvette D’Ath for the data in a Question on Notice, said the unacceptable and chaotic situation was “devastating” and “stressful” for patients.
“Paramedics didn’t sign up for this vocation to spend an entire shift ramped while other calls go unanswered by Queenslanders in their hour of need,” Ms Bates said.
She said the LNP party proposed solutions to tackle ramping like “better resources, improving triaging and real time data monitoring.”
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As this publication reported on Monday, more Queenslanders were turning to emergency departments for primary healthcare as a Medicare system “on its knees” was making seeing GPs unaffordable.
Queensland paramedics waited nearly 13,000 hours with patients outside emergency departments in January.
Mackay Hospital and Health Services acting chief executive Dr Charles Pain said the shortage of comprehensive bulk-billing clinics was contributing to EDs dealing with “more acutely unwell people” and more people arriving by ambulance.
The state’s biggest paediatrics units – Queensland Children’s Hospital and Prince Charles Hospital – both saw increases by as much as 30 per cent in almost every category of patient under 14 years of age according to the latest hospital performance data for January, February and March.
New Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said Queensland had the busiest ambulance service in the country, and was the only mainland state to provide the service “free at the point of use”.
QUEENSLAND ‘OUTPERFORMS MOST JURISDICTIONS’
“Despite (this) … Report on Government Services data shows the QAS outperforms most jurisdictions, including Victoria and New South Wales, in relation to ambulance response times.”
Ms Fentiman stated 72 per cent of Queensland patients were seen within the recommended time frames compared to 66.4 per cent in NSW, and that every category 1 patient was seen within the recommended two-minutes.
She said this was despite the number of category 1 and 2 patient presentations having more than doubled since 2013/14.
“The rise in the urgency of cases, and the reduction in the availability and affordability of primary care, means that people who would have otherwise sought care in the community are now coming to our emergency departments,” Ms Fentiman said.
“Some of these patients will be less urgent and may need to wait for some time before receiving care from an emergency doctor.”
Ms Fentiman said the Labor government had invested in measures to help patient flow including Satellite Hospitals, and fast-tracking new beds.
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