Health talks with Opposition at the Frenchville Sports Club on Saturday

Mr Crisafulli and the people who attended the Rockhampton meeting were unanimous in their praise for the doctors, nurses and other staff on the ground whom, he said, were “trying their guts out” to help patients.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli at the LNP's Health Crisis talk in Rockhampton June 2021

David Crisafulli went relatively quiet on party politics but his empathy spoke volumes when he met with Central Queensland residents in Rockhampton on Saturday.

The Opposition Leader wrapped up a week-long series of Health Crisis talks at the Frenchville Sports Club where he asked after locals’ experiences with hospitals and ambulance ramping in particular.

About 50 people joined Mr Crisafulli at the Frenchville Sports Club, many of whom wore ‘more than one hat’.

There were people who worked in or had retired from the health industry, who now faced their own or family members’ medical challenges, ready to lend perspective on the problem.

Mr Crisafulli patiently listened to more than 20 people tell their stories and asked his staff to speak with some of them at more length after the meeting.

A diabetes educator told Mr Crisafulli her patients received inadequate support, at only two allocations per year, for the treatment which might keep them out of the hospital system, with foot diseases, for example.

Another woman said local hospitals needed to invest in more triage staff to separate non-urgent cases into another section of the hospital.

A funeral director said that, unlike Yeppoon Hospital which had no mortuary, the Rockhampton hospitals were delaying the release of the deceased to their families for up to a week because of staff RDOs, unnecessarily stretching the hospitals’ resources.

Mr Crisafulli advocated real time data monitoring – similar to New South Wales hospitals’ – to keep the public up to date on how many patients are waiting to be admitted to hospital and for how long.

RAMPING: A family has spoken about a 15 hour wait time in Rockhampton Base Hospital's Emergency Department on Monday.

Mr Crisafulli said there had been a 27 per cent increase in ramping at Rockhampton Hospital since February 2020.

He further claimed the Labor government was publishing “nonsense” statistics by classifying a chair in a shower stall, for example, as a bed.

Mr Crisafulli said he regularly received screenshots from ‘whistleblowers’ within the Queensland Health system, indicating all beds were taken and there was nowhere for ambulance patients to go.

He heard from locals how the number of beds in Rockhampton Hospital dropped from about 400 to just over 100, “virtually overnight” in the 80s.

Meanwhile, a private health administrator said her facility had seven beds vacant because it couldn’t attract the specialist staff to Rockhampton it needed.

Mr Crisafulli said the system was not primarily burdened because people were calling an ambulance for the wrong reasons.

He said that, since the ambulance service began to source its revenue from electricity bills, it was “never better resourced”.

However, the incidents of ramping – that patients weren’t admitted to a hospital bed within the clinically recommended time – had gone from about 30 per cent in 2011, to 40 per cent around Queensland and up to 50 per cent in Rockhampton, he said.

He said front-line staff were “crying out” to be heard.

Mr Crisafulli and the people who attended the Rockhampton meeting were unanimous in their praise for the doctors, nurses and other staff on the ground whom, he said, were “trying their guts out” to help Queensland patients.

He called for a complete cultural change when it came to deciding how hospitals would be resourced and managed.

“I encourage people to come forward as we continue to listen to honest Queenslanders who’ve been horribly let down by a state government who are more focused on excuses than outcomes.”

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath responded to Mr Crisfaulli’s claims ahead of the meeting, and said a record Health Budget would be handed down on Tuesday.

“This year the State Government has provided an additional $4.4 million to Central Queensland HHS to specifically support an expanded bed capacity and extended services to meet growing Emergency Department demand,” she said.

“We know that public hospitals throughout the state have been experiencing strong and at times unprecedented demand recently, including Central Queensland.

“Our frontline health and ambulance workers continually rise to the challenge by delivering world class care, and I want to thank them for their outstanding work.

“The Palaszczuk Government invested a record $661 million for Central Queensland HHS in 2020/21 - $38.5 million more than the previous year and up from $465 million under the LNP’s final State Budget in 2014-15.

“We’re also investing $24.2 million for an upgrade at the Rockhampton Hospital site, including an expansion of the mental health ward.

“When the Newman Government was in power the LNP cut 197 health staff from hospitals in Central Queensland, so they shouldn’t be lecturing anyone about health.”