Govt announces $20m five-point plan to ease ramping

The Health Minister has released a five-point initial plan that includes hiring more staff and appointing “medical commanders” in a bid to ease ambulance ramping across the state.

Urgently hiring more triage nurses, appointing “medical commanders” to manage patient flow, and ensuring after hours and weekend access to X-rays will be part of an initial plan to ease ambulance ramping across the state.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman announced the five-point initial plan, backed in with $20m, following a meeting of hospital emergency department heads in the wake of a spate of ramping-related tragedies in the state’s southeast.

The funding will come from a $2.88bn health fund set aside in the budget to deal with Queensland Health growth and demand pressures.

There are not yet specifics around how many nurses the state hopes to hire, or how much funding will go to each initiative.

Ms Fentiman said more work would be done and committed to holding regular weekly meetings with frontline emergency department bosses and Queensland Health acting director general Michael Walsh to ensure progress.

It’s understood triage nurses, who effectively work in the space between an ambulance ramp and a patient being formally admitted to the emergency department, are often sucked back in to the hospital the moment extra resources are needed.

Ms Fentiman said she hoped putting more on would alleviate the issue. It is unknown where Queensland Health will find even more nurses amid a chronic shortage.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates slammed Ms Fentiman’s calling of an urgent roundtable as a copy of her predecessor’s playbook.

Minister for Health Shannon Fentiman MP addresses the media. Picture: Patrick Woods.

In March 2021 then-Health Minister Yvette D’Ath also held an emergency meeting after ambulance ramping reached record levels, and it is uncertain if all those recommendations were ultimately implemented.

“The sad reality for Queenslanders is this Government, for nearly a decade, has failed to acknowledge Queensland’s deteriorating health system,” Ms Bates said.

“They failed to act, when they should have.”

The Australian Medical Association president Maria Boulton said that the solutions tabled will require collaboration to address the crisis and workforce shortages was the main hurdle.

“The Minister has also requested to meet with our experts from our AMA Queensland ramping roundtable to brainstorm solutions,” Dr Boulton said.

“We are pleased that the minister is genuinely engaged and action focused towards addressing this ongoing crisis. She’s listened.

“We put forward a number of new strategies on Friday morning which the Minister has supported immediately, practice care co-ordinators, alternate admission pathways, rapid access for GPs to other non GP specialists regarding urgent patient concerns

“These recommendations build on the ones made by AMA Queensland’s ramping roundtable which included the need for more hospital beds.

“Workforce will always be the number one issue but we need to think creatively to provide solutions.”

Ms Fentiman said she knew some patient flow initiatives had been implemented and noted it was “always useful to get everyone in the room and talk” about what was working in one area and how it could perhaps be implemented elsewhere.

A communique from the meeting noted demand for emergency care was “increasing faster than population growth” and that patients were presenting with more complex and chronic conditions.