Passionate residents and patients from across the Redlands have shared harrowing stories about the region’s health system at the Queensland Health Crisis Town Hall, hosted by the State Opposition today.

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli thanked locals for their bravery.

“Speaking up takes enormous courage, especially when it comes to your health,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“The stories we heard today were distressing but it makes us more determined to fight for better healthcare in the Redlands.

 

“The LNP wants the State Government to implement our solutions of more beds, improving triaging, giving power back to the local health boards and introduce real time data monitoring. That’s how we start fixing our health system after half a decade of worsening performance.

 

“It is deeply alarming that 65% of patients are forced to wait in the back of an ambulance longer than the clinically recommended time at Redland Hospital. That is the worst in Queensland.

 

“Queensland Health data shows in April, one patient at Redland Hospital was forced to wait in the back of an ambulance for eight hours before receiving treatment.

 

“We will take these stories from the Redlands today to the floor of Parliament because these locals deserve answers. We won’t let this go.”

Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates said today’s stories echoed many others from across the state.

“The town halls have given honest Queenslanders a platform to speak up,” Ms Bates said.

“What has become abundantly clear is Queensland Health was in crisis years before COVID.

“Redland Hospital is ground zero for ambulance ramping in Queensland and has the third worst rate for patients not being treated within the clinically recommended time for elective surgery.

 

“As a nurse and former hospital administrator, I know how stressful it is for our hardworking doctors and nurses on the frontline.

“The embattled Health Minister should be making patient care a top priority, not political blame games and finger pointing.

 

“If the Minister isn’t up to the job, she has to go.”

 

-ENDS-

Queensland Health Data:

 

Ambulance Ramping: (patient on the stretcher longer than 30mins clinically recommended)

 

Facility Metric Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 May-21 Jun-21 Jul-21
Redland Hospital Ambulance Ramping %     59 54 53 65  
Longest Patient Wait Time on Hospital Ramp (hrs) 5.1 5.5 5.8 8.0 6.2 6.4 6.4

 


Emergency Department Statistics:

 

June Quarter 2021 Data
Metro South HHS % of patients not seen within clinically recommended timeframe % point increase since June 2020 Quarter
Redland Hospital 34% 9
HHS Average 33% n/a

 


Elective Surgery Waitlist:

 

June Quarter 2021 Data
MSHHS % of patients not treated within clinically recommended timeframe Number of Patients Waiting

21.6% is the THIRD WORST QLD rate of patients not treated within clinically recommended time