Central Queensland hospitals forced to cut beds and medical supplies due to vaccine mandate

Regional Queensland hospitals have been forced to reduce capacities and medical supplies due to workers who are not complying with the vaccine mandate.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said there were always going to be “difficult decisions” as central Queensland hospitals are forced to cut beds and medical services after workers failed to comply with the vaccine mandate.

The minister addressed reports from ABC that more than 8 per cent of Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service workers provided no evidence of being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and were not on leave.

By not complying with the mandate, some surgical, medical and mental health beds would be temporarily reduced.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Ms D’Ath said that the decision to put a mandate in place was supported by unions and stakeholders.

“All the modelling says it needs to be done because the number of staff we would lose if we had a major outbreak and they were unvaccinated would be far greater.

“We would be shutting down lots of wards, lots of surgeries, because staff would be sick or worse, in hospital wards themselves.”

The minister said that there would be pressure on the system in the short term but she was “confident” the number of unvaccinated health workers would reduce quickly.

The show cause for unvaccinated workers is in place for two weeks where workers will be suspended on full pay for at least one week.

There have also been 2500 exemptions sent to Queensland Health so far, with acting chief health officer Dr Paul Aitken saying they would be dealt with on an individual basis, depending on the circumstances.

“At this stage those who have put exemption applications in or have got no response, they’re on full pay for this week, and then after that the process will continue,” Dr Aitken said.