Running out of patience with hospital failures

Only two Queensland hospitals are meeting targets set by the Department of Health to get patients off stretchers within 90 minutes of arrival, as new data confirms ambulance ramping has significantly worsened at a number of hospitals across the state.

AMBULANCE ramping has significantly worsened at a number of hospitals across the state, new Queensland Health data shows.

The latest Queensland Health hospital performance data for November 2018, released yesterday, shows a staggering increase in the number of patients being left in an ambulance while waiting for a hospital bed.

Ramping crisis continues to hit Queensland emergency departments

Mentally ill ‘living’ in Logan Hospital corridor

Call for more beds to end ramping

Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra hospital had the largest increase in ambulance ramping – up 19 per cent on the previous month – meaning a total of 36 per cent of patients arriving by ambulance waited more than half an hour to get inside the hospital.

The data shows most patients are also waiting longer for a bed at Redland Hospital, with ramping now at 47 per cent, up 12 per cent.

While, ramping at QEII is now at 40 per cent, up 15 per cent and at Logan Hospital is 40 per cent, up five per cent on the previous month.

The Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital is up nine per cent – now at 26 – and Gold Coast University Hospital is at 38 per cent, an increase of nine per cent.

The target set by the Department of Health is 90 per cent of patients off stretcher within half an hour, but the latest data shows most hospitals are falling well short of this benchmark.

This whistleblower picture shows patients and emergency personnel waiting in a hallway at Princess Alexandra Hospital last September. Nurses say the practice is still happening.

The only hospitals to meet the target were Townsville and Maryborough.

The figures show since 2017 there has been a 24 per cent rise in patients waiting in an ambulance longer than 30 minutes before receiving emergency treatment.

The Courier-Mail last week revealed patients were being left unattended in corridors at hospital including Logan, Redlands and the Princess Alexandra, in an attempt to deal with the ramping problem.

Whistleblowers shared horror situations where suicidal teens and patients with heart conditions had been left alone at hospitals across Metro South.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Steven Miles said demand at emergency departments was increasing, with an extra 17,000 attendances last financial year compared to the year before.

“Despite these demand challenges, our paramedics, emergency department doctors and nurses are treating more patients than ever before,” she said.

“They do a tremendous job of looking after Queenslanders when we’re sick.”

She said the median waiting time for treatment in November was “only 17 minutes” and said 99 per cent of the most critically ill patients were seen immediately.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said the new statistics proved the Government had failed to fix the ramping crisis over the past 12 months.

“Ambulance ramping is getting worse…Annastacia Palaszczuk and her embattled Health Minister Steven Miles don’t have a plan to improve it,” she said.

“They’ve bungled the health IT system, ignored overcrowding, shut down regional maternity wards and haven’t done anything to reduce parking costs at public hospitals.”

But the spokeswoman for Mr Miles hit back, claiming “Deb Frecklington doesn’t know a thing about providing healthcare for Queenslanders”.

“What’s worse, is Deb Frecklington can’t even stand up to her Canberra mates – the Morrison Government – who continue to rip money from Queensland hospitals,” she said.