Thousands of patients walk away from hospital emergency due to long waiting periods

A GROWING phenomenon hitting Queensland hospital emergency departments is resulting in more and more patients not receiving vital treatment.

THOUSANDS of hospital patients are leaving Queensland emergency departments without treatment every month, with many refusing to wait to see a doctor.

The Courier-Mail can reveal latest data from Queensland Health shows 3900 people walked out of public emergency departments in June before treatment began, an average of 125 every day.

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This included one patient triaged as life-threatening category one which, according to clinical guidelines, should be treated immediately, and 40 category two patients, the second most serious category, who should be seen by a doctor within 10 minutes of arrival.

Another 2368 patients left after treatment had begun, the data revealed.

The Gold Coast University Hospital had the most walkouts in June, recording 408 departures without treatment, while Bundaberg was also among the worst performers with 209 people leaving after registering their details with the triage nurse.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said emergency departments were overcrowded.

“A quarter of patients (are) not being seen within clinically recommended times,” Ms Bates said.

“It’s no wonder almost 4000 patients walked out of EDs last month because they didn’t want to wait – an increase of more than 10 per cent under Labor.

“(Premier) Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor seem to busy playing politics and trying to change the names of hospitals, rather than giving nurses and doctors the resources they need.”

Queensland Health said the figures were a drop in the ocean compared to how many patients were treated in public hospitals across the state each month, but admitted a lot of people clog up critical care facilities with minor problems.

“In the first six months of this year, more than 290,000 presentations were categorised as GP-type, meaning they could or should have been treated by GPs or other clinical professionals and not in the emergency department,” a spokeswoman said.