Editorial: Hospital crisis is not ‘out of the blue’

The Courier-Mail has been reporting regularly on what the minister says was a mystery spike, writes the editor.

Queensland Health should have seen this crisis coming.

Tim Nicholls would have known it before he took the job, but the health portfolio is the poison chalice of Australian state politics.

Not only are they forever trying to make the budget stretch further, state health ministers are invariably plagued by scandals they can really do little about – involving ramping, emergency wait times, cancelled elective surgeries and the lack of key medical staff.

In Queensland, that struggle is exacerbated by the ever-increasing state population and the geographic size of our state, that mean health resources are always streatched.

Just last term, the job took some serious bark off the careers of both Labor’s Yvette D’Ath and her successor Shannon Fentiman.

As we said, Mr Nicholls would have known all this, just as he would have known that every winter the state’s hospitals are stretched to breaking point by flu, and more recently Covid admissions.

Mr Nicholls yesterday tried to explain away the cancellation of non-urgent surgery at all Metro North hospitals. He bizarrely described the flu spike that has stretched hospitals to breaking point as coming “out of the blue”.

It was bizarre, as The Courier-Mail has been reporting regularly on what the minister says was a mystery spike all winter so far.

On July 10 – a full week ago – we wrote about chief health officer Dr Heidi Carroll warning parents of the flu epidemic, which was expected to get worse as students returned to the classroom.

On June 11, we reported that Mater Hospital’s Infectious Diseases director Professor Paul Griffin had said Queenslanders should get their Covid-19 and flu jabs, after Covid-19 surged 30 per cent in a fortnight and flu cases were reported at 30 per cent higher level than in 2024.

Rewind to June 5, when we reported that blood supplies were at dangerously low levels, because unprecedented rates of Covid-19 and flu had hit donation numbers.

In fact, Mr Nicholls himself had launched an appeal for healthy donors to step up – he himself rolled up his sleeve.

So the minister is either seriously under-informed (in which case he should take up our latest subscription offer, advertised on page 22) or is just trying it on by saying this spike, and the resulting crisis, is unexpected.

And worryingly, this is just not something that happens every year.

As a nurse whistleblower from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital tells us in today’s story, it is worse than she has ever seen it.

The nurse said: “There is not the capacity to give proper care. Old people are falling and hitting their heads as staff can’t be everywhere. It’s a frightening situation.”

It is frightening. We agree. And Mr Nicholls should be more careful with his choice of words.

WELCOME THE OTHER LIONS TO BRISBANE

We’ve already heard their accents and seen their vivid red jerseys as they pour into our pubs, shops and restaurants. And we offer each and every one of them the warmest of Queensland welcomes.

The first of an estimated 30,000- plus fans began swarming into Brisbane in earnest last week, readying themselves for the British and Irish Lions Test against Australia on Saturday night.

And these cheerful visitors, ranging from the cashed-up corporate executive to the steelworker from Wales, are going to spend (as Brisbane Economic Development Agency chief executive Anthony Ryan estimates) from $55m to $60m.

We want them to have the time of their lives as they experience Brisbane and the southeast at its midwinter best before cheering on their team at Suncorp Stadium.

Brisbane is without question an attractive city, but in the past, we’ve been a little hesitant to sell ourselves to international tourists.

Too many inbound visitors have landed in Sydney, perhaps visited the Gold Coast and certainly headed north to check out the Daintree, the Great Barrier Reef and the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. But too many of these international travellers have skipped a night in Brisbane.

It’s been their loss, because the world is rapidly learning this river city is a destination all of its own.

And any lingering doubts about that will be dispelled come July 2032 when the Queensland capital has the international spotlight as host of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In the interim, we should take the opportunity to use these Lions visitors as a training exercise on how to be engaging hosts, keeping in mind visitors always place a high premium on local friendliness.

So, if you hear one of those intriguing accents around town over the next few days, go over and say g’day.

We want them to know that we value their decision to pay us a visit, and we’re thankful to them for enlivening our city and our economy over the next few days.

Oh but, incidentally, we also say: Go the Wallabies!

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here