Bed shortages plague Queensland public hospitals

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 18 2010

According to the Australian Medical Association of Queensland there is a 500 bed shortage in the public hospitals in Queensland. This information came in the national public hospital report card on Thursday that was released by the Australian Medical Association.

AMA Queensland president Dr Gino Pecoraro said a bed shortage was the most critical but correctable issue for Queensland. “The bottom line is we need more beds...we are 500 beds behind what we need…We’re aware of a large building program the state government is undertaking but that won't deliver beds...for five or 10 years. We need beds now…Our members tell us the blocks come in getting patients out of emergency departments and into beds,” he said. He explained the preset bed occupancy rates at some Queensland public hospitals were at very high levels. “In some areas it’s reached dangerous levels, we know that Nambour has an occupancy rate far above the recommended level of 85 per cent.” So much so that there is a rise of “Ramping” – a bank up of ambulances with patients waiting for emergency beds Dr Pecoraro said.

He added that Queensland Health had enough administrators and non-clinical staff and more doctors and nurses were needed. He urged the system to fly in doctors, trainees and surgeons into regional areas rather than patients being sent to the southeast corner for treatment and surgery. Along with this he said telemedicine needed a face lift too.

However all was not bad for Queensland on the report card. “The average length of wait for elective surgery in Queensland is better compared to other states… We can improve that further… But there are fewer people being taken off the elective surgery waiting list than five years ago,” Dr Pecoraro said

The Health Minister Paul Lucas has promised more beds. “We are delivering more than 1700 extra beds in Queensland alone by 2016,” he said. He added that the state’s hospital infrastructure program, worth $5.7 billion, was the largest in the nation. “Anyone driving past any of our major hospitals can see we are expanding hospitals across the state to deliver more beds and more services for Queensland patients,” he said. “Between 2006/07 and 2009/10 we opened more than 780 additional beds in Queensland hospitals and 113 extra in the last financial year,” Mr Lucas said.

He explained that staff was a much bigger necessity for patients that beds. He said, “That’s why we have employed more than 14,600 doctors, nurses and allied health professionals since 2005 and in the next year we plan to employ 1200 more.”