Health Minister Yvette D’Ath urged to boot Wide Bay health board

Leaked letters reveal the Health Minister has been asked to step in amid a ‘no confidence’ vote in the board overseeing a hospital in crisis

A vote of no-confidence vote in the board overseeing Hervey Bay Hospital has been sent to the Queensland Health Minister.

It comes amid escalating tensions between doctors and the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service.

A leaked letter to Health Minister Yvette D’Ath from the Together Union revealed a meeting of members resulted in the unanimous no-confidence vote in the “ability of the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service to set the direction in providing the services needed by the people of Hervey Bay and Maryborough”.

The letter was addressed to Ms D’Ath from Together Union organiser Alex Scott.

It also called on the Director General to review the actions of WBHHS in their handling of industrial relations matters and for the minister to commission a review of the Hervey Bay Hospital finances.

The revelations comes after bleak picture of an ICU in crisis was painted earlier this week in extraordinary leaked letters sent between a senior doctor, Wide Bay Hospital and Health chiefs and the union.

In one letter, sent to a senior doctor and sighted by the Fraser Coast Chronicle, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service CEO Debbie Carroll stressed the Hervey Bay Intensive Unit was assessed as Level 4 and provides a number of directions staff had to follow to ensure it operated as such – including the transfer out of patients whose needs were beyond the ‘clinical capabilities’ of the local team.

Together Union organiser Allison Finlay-Bissett with other protesters outside Hervey Bay Hospital.

A response from Together Union Lead Organiser Allison Finley-Bissett however claimed that in reality the Hervey Bay ICU had been wrongly categorised by the health service as Level 4 when it had been experiencing Level 5 activity for the past eight years.

She said the union believed this was an exercise in ensuring Hervey Bay Hospital was not upgraded – a concern which has repeatedly been flagged as plans progress for a new hospital in Bundaberg.

Mr Scott also addressed those concerns in his letter to the Health Minister.

“Matters in Hervey Bay Hospital are escalating,” he said.

The union letter goes on to say that if staff were to follow the directions outlined in Ms Carroll’s letter, it would mean 70 per cent of patients would have to be transferred elsewhere or have their care supervised over the phone by intensive care specialists at other hospitals.

Mr Scott said it would create unnecessary work for already overworked doctors and nurses.

“This directive was implemented with no warning or consultation,” Mr Scott wrote.

“It has devastated staff at Hervey Bay Hospital.”

In a response from WBBHS, Ms Carroll thanked the “dedicated staff across all facilities for their ongoing commitment to providing the best possible care for our patients, while experiencing an unprecedented growth in demand for their care”.

“While we’ve made significant recent investment in our local hospitals to increase their capacity and introduce more efficient models of care, the growth that we’re experiencing is beyond what any analyst or expert body predicted for our region,” she said.

“Key initiatives to respond to unprecedented growth include: Last year WBHHS commissioned a peer exchange process, led by our local clinicians in conjunction with Queensland’s Health Improvement Unit, which enabled us to draw on the input and experience of experts and clinicians from similar units around the state.

“It identified recommendations about what our key needs were, in the face of increased demand from a growing and ageing community.

“This resulted in a $12.13 million injection to boost health services across the Fraser Coast, allowing WBHHS to fund the soon-to-be opened extra 18-bed ward at Maryborough Hospital and increase emergency department staffing at both hospitals to meet rising demand.

“WBHHS was also successful in securing Care4Qld funding, a program developed specifically to support HHSs to respond to high levels of unplanned demand, including ‘winter bed’ funding

“We’re currently completing a new Health Service Plan, which will review all 11 WBHHS facilities, and consider transform, optimise and grow strategies from the Queensland Health System Outlook to 2026 for a sustainable health service.

“By reviewing service arrangements to align them with changing local resident health needs, while making effective use of health resources, we will ensure WBHHS continues to provide patient-centred, innovative, enduring and sustainable care well into the future.

“Construction is currently underway on a new 22-bed acute mental health inpatient unit at Hervey Bay that will be followed by the refurbishment of the Maryborough Hospital inpatient unit to create a 10-bed specialist subacute unit, focusing on older people’s mental health care.

“We opened our new emergency department at Hervey Bay along with an additional 19 medical beds at Hervey Bay Hospital. We’ve also upgraded our emergency department and specialist outpatient department at Maryborough Hospital.

“Earlier this year, WBHHS hosted a Healthy Ageing workshop at the Fraser Coast to develop sustainable models of care and whole-of-community approaches for older people as the community continues to age.

“The workshop brought together government and non-government groups along with consumers together with a Healthy Ageing Collaborative established since that time.

“Our leadership team understands our staff are feeling the impact of this growth and demand, and we appreciate their ongoing commitment to providing quality healthcare while under this pressure.

“As always, we continue to be committed to working collaboratively with our staff, local union representatives and Queensland Health as we face these challenges, to ensure our community and patients continue to receive the best possible care now and in the future.

“WBHHS also continues to keep the Office of the Director-General informed on regional industrial relations matters.”