Queensland patients stuck outside hospitals longer than ever before

The crisis engulfing Queensland Health has escalated with secret documents revealing there is no end in sight for the state’s ambulance ramping crisis.

Ministerial briefing documents the government does not want Queenslanders to see, show patients are waiting longer in the back of ambulances stuck outside hospitals despite there being thousands less callouts than the previous year.

The secret documents released to the Opposition under Right to Information expose the true state of our sick health system.

More than 150 pages of weekly Queensland Ambulance Service briefing documents received by the Health Minister between July and September show on average, the time paramedics and their patients spent stuck on ramps increased at 21 of the state’s 26 largest hospitals compared with the same time in the previous financial year.

Also among the shocking findings:

At the end of each month, not once did the government meet its Code 1A response time target, despite the Health Minister saying these targets were being met. These documents prove that at the end of July, August and September, that did not happen.
Not once did the government meet its Code 1B, 1C, 2B, 2C or 3 response time target in the September quarter.
Paramedics and their patients were ramped for an average of 434 hours every single day between June and September this year. That’s up from an average of 369 hours across last financial year.
There were 3,249 fewer call outs for ambulances compared with the same time last year.
Between June and September, paramedics and their patients were ramped for nearly 40,000 hours.
4,995 hours lost at Logan Hospital
4,499 hours lost at Ipswich Hospital
3,650 hours lost at the PA Hospital
2,132 hours lost at QEII
In September, it was taking paramedics an average of:
61.4 minutes to offload patients at Ipswich Hospital
60.4 minutes to offload patients at Logan Hospital
59.3 minutes to offload patients at Redland Hospital
57.9 minutes to offload patients at the PA Hospital

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli said the shocking statistics were despite the fact the number of QAS incidents decreased, and the number of Queenslanders presenting to emergency departments fell.

“Ambulance ramping is now at 44% across Queensland which is the worst in the country,” he said.

“Imagine what it’s like for those ambos who are stuck at the end of a ramp for an entire shift when all they want to do is help those in need.

“Every single Queenslander who has suffered as a result of this crisis is owed answers by the State Government.

“We cannot allow this sense of hopelessness with the Queensland Health Crisis to go on.

“For more than two years we’ve had solutions on the table that could be implemented now.

“More beds, better triaging, releasing data in real time and giving power back to the frontline staff to make better decisions to improve patient care is just the start.

“We cannot have a situation in this state where Queenslanders live in fear as the health system collapses around them.

“The government must listen, and they must act to heal the Queensland Health Crisis now.”

Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates said Queenslanders would be shocked to learn that not only is ambulance ramping getting worse, but the government has been misleading them as to why.

“As a former hospital administrator, I know how stressful it is for our doctors, nurses, paramedics and allied health professionals buckling under a system suffering from nearly 8 years of mismanagement,” she said.

“My frontline colleagues deserve more resources and respect.”

Ms Bates said the tired, third-term Labor government had given up on listening.

“Queenslanders need solutions now, yet the embattled Health Minister is clearly incapable of fixing the Queensland Health Crisis,” she said.

“She must go.”

-ENDS-

Note to media: Link to RTI