Bundaberg Hospital emergency waiting times upon worst in QLD

Emergency room wait times and ambulance ramping stats in Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Maryborough have been revealed as the State Opposition continues to wage war against the Queensland Government’s handling of Wide Bay hospitals.

Continuing on its health crisis warpath, the State Opposition has shone a spotlight on staggering wait times at Bundaberg Hospital.

It comes days after it released a Freedom Of Information report which revealed ambulance ramping chaos across the state.

On Thursday it was Bundaberg and the broader Wide Bay’s turn to be highlighted in a media conference held at the Rum City’s War Nurses Memorial Park.

Former Opposition Leader and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington joined Burnett MP Stephen Bennett to talk to reporters about the depth of the crisis at local hospitals.

Ms Frecklington said the health system under Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was “falling down”.

“What we see is that more than half of the patients that arrive at Bundaberg Hospital do not get seen within clinically recommended times,” Ms Frecklington said.

“Now that is the worst statistic in Queensland.”

According to statistics from the Queensland Government Hospital Performance, more than half of patients who turned up to the emergency department at Bundaberg Hospital were not seen on time.

At Hervey Bay Hospital 43% of patients were not seen within clinically recommended times in the emergency department, and for Maryborough Hospital it was 40% not seen in that time.
In terms of ambulance ramping, 75% of patients at Bundaberg Hospital were transferred off-stretcher within 30 minutes, for Hervey Bay Hospital it was 69% of patients within 30 minutes, and for Maryborough Hospital it was 87%.

“These are the figures that have been released and found under the right to information,” Ms Frecklington said.

“If those figures are not correct, we’ll let the government justify them.”

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service Chief Executive Debbie Carroll said in a statement the hospitals had still achieved an “excellent” waiting time result in trying times.

“Despite recording a 4% increase in emergency department presentations across the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service (WBHHS), our hardworking staff still achieved a median waiting time of 28 minutes, an excellent result under the circumstances,” Ms Carroll said.

“Regarding ramping, 87% of patients were transferred off-stretcher within 30 minutes at Maryborough Hospital, 75% at Bundaberg Hospital and 69% at Hervey Bay Hospital.

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service CEO Debbie Carroll says hospitals like Hervey Bay have done well in trying times.

“Wide Bay HHS has increased capacity in the region and introduced new models of care to manage pressure caused by factors including a growing and ageing population, limited access to GP services, and a decline in private health insurance membership.

“We thank our ED teams for their continued hard work in providing emergency care to our communities.”

Ms Frecklinton and Mr Bennett insisted the health service needed to be run locally.

“Unfortunately the health system under Annastacia Palaszczuk and local Tom Smith … it’s actually run by Ann Street in Brisbane,” she claimed

“What we want to see in the Wide Bay, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Bundaberg or Kingaroy, we want to see our health system run locally.

“The horror stories that we’re talking about today is if you turn up to this emergency centre, you’ve only got a 50% chance that you’ll be seen in clinically recommended times.”

Ms Frecklington said the issues were the same across Hervey Bay and Maryborough.

“The health crisis here in Queensland has to stop, in fact the health crisis here in the Wide Bay has to stop,” she said.
Mr Bennett told the press conference power needed to be given back to the hospital staff.

“Take it out of Ann Street, get the unions out of the way, make sure that clinically driven service delivery for health becomes a reality in Bundaberg and Wide Bay health service,” he said.

“It is about the people, the people in this region can do it, they need the government to get out of their road, show leadership, show management and governance, but don’t try and control everything.”

In a statement to the NewsMail, Member for Bundaberg Tom Smith put the blame on the Federal Government.

“We know the LNP’s record when it comes to our health system,” Mr Smith said

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Bundaberg MP Tom Smith. Photo Paul Beutel

“We saw that in 2013 when nurses were living in tents on Salter Oval because of the floods, Mr Bennett and the LNP sacked them.

“We know more and more people are calling into the emergency department and calling our paramedics because they cannot see a GP or cannot afford to see a GP.

“More and more people are presenting to our emergency department from aged care facilities because there’s not enough registered nurses on care because of the failings of the federal government.

“What we are seeing in Queensland when it comes to health is a federal government crisis.’’

The battle was first reignited in statement released by the Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli on Thursday morning.

“These shocking figures show the extent of the Queensland Health Crisis right across the state,” he said

“The number of patients stuck in emergency departments at Bundaberg and Hervey Bay is rising every day, up 7% from the last quarter and in Maryborough it’s up 5%.”

In terms of elective surgeries, Ms Carroll said WBHHS was still one of the best performing regions in the country.

“WBHHS is consistently one of the best performing regions in Australia with close to 100% of elective surgery patients treated within their recommended waiting time each quarter,” she said.

“This was no different in the December 2021 quarter, with 98.2% of patients treated on time.”