Aged care patients put pressure on Redland Hospital

Services at a southside hospital are under question after ramping claims and allegations that aged care dementia patients were taking up hospital beds over weekends.

Bowman MP Andrew Laming; top; and Capalaba MP Don Brown; the Redland Hospital where there was no sign of ramping on Friday.

Services at a southside hospital are under question after ramping claims and allegations that aged care dementia patients were taking up hospital beds over weekends.

Liberal MP for Bowman Andrew Laming told federal parliament ramping at Redland Hospital had risen from 37 per cent in 2019 to 51 per cent this year.

But state Labor MP Don Brown said ramping was not the problem, the federal government’s lack of aged care funding was forcing elderly dementia patients to take up much-needed beds on weekends.

Capalaba MP Don Brown says the lack of aged care staffing was putting pressure on beds at Redland Hospital.

Redland Hospital recorded a busy weekend with 16 “maintenance” patients admitted out of 179.

The influx followed a state government request to the federal government last week to fund almost 600 aged and disability care packages to free up much-needed hospital beds across the state.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the Morrison government’s chronic underinvestment in aged and disability care was keeping 575 Queenslanders in public hospital beds.

But Mr Laming said upgrades at the hospital were behind schedule and blamed the state Labor government for concentrating on building a new carpark at the site instead of using federal funding allocated in 2018 to expand the hospital.

“The state government is spending a year planning a temporary carpark without doing the multi-story tender at the same time,” he said.

“Now we have ramping more likely to happen than not, if you are taken to Redlands. Fifty-one per cent is appalling,” he said.

Ambulances in the parking bay at Redland Hospital on Friday.

Mr Brown hit back at the claims and said there was no evidence of ramping at the hospital when he was there on Friday.

“Eighty-per cent of those attending the Redland Hospital emergency ward are over 75 and there is half a ward taken up by dementia patients who should be in aged care homes,” Mr Brown said.

“There were eight beds taken up on Friday by dementia patients who haven’t found a spot in an aged care home, which is a federal government responsibility.

“Staff told me on Friday that because aged care is understaffed with nurses and also GPs on the weekend, there are patients being transferred to the hospital for the weekend because the aged care facilities aren’t properly resourced.”

Bowman MP Andrew Laming

Mr Laming said every aged care patient had “security of tenure” as the federal government paid 30 days aged care funding to each facility along with a daily fee to hold beds for as long as required.

The Bowman MP also used his parliament speech to “remind” Redlands MP Kim Richards of a Friday deadline for her to lodge official complaints about his Facebook posts.

The pair have been in a long-running Facebook feud with Ms Richards complaining in state parliament Mr Laming was trolling her and posting photos of her on Facebook, which he has denied.

“It is time to stop talking and start fixing,” he said.

“Forget Facebook. Come back to the real world of people needing emergency care.”