Premier Steven Miles’ response to secret dossier slammed by former cop, Opposition

A former high-ranking officer and opposition frontbencher have blasted Premier Steven Miles’ response to a secret dossier that showed police are stuck at overstretched hospitals instead of dealing with the state’s “raging crime crisis”.

• Premier’s stunning response to secret register
• Health crisis stops cops from doing real work

A former police officer and opposition frontbencher has slammed the Queensland Premier for dismissing concerns about cops being stuck at overstretched hospitals as just doing “their job”.

An ex-Queensland superintendent also weighed in, saying police were being forced into a “terrible situation” amid a “raging crime crisis”.

It comes after The Courier-Mail revealed police were being held up for nearly a week in Queensland hospitals guarding prisoners, left for hours in waiting rooms and made to ramp alongside ambulances with injured or mentally ill people in patrol cars.

A spreadsheet collated by Brisbane officers, obtained by The Courier-Mail, lists three years of occasions when police were kept from their normal duties because other frontline services were too busy.

But in response, Premier Steven Miles said police being tied up at hospitals was “part of their job”.

“Well, it is their job, it’s part of their job,” he said.

“Hospital workers and police work together.

“Sometimes that does mean that police have to spend time at the hospital to keep our hospital workers safe while ensuring that those in custody get the healthcare that they need.”

Opposition police and community safety spokesman Dan Purdie. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

But LNP Police spokesman Dan Purdie said police initially created the register because of this “growing problem”.

“I’ve been a police officer all my adult life and it was never our job to care for a patient in the back of a police car ramped outside a hospital for up to eight hours, but it is now thanks to a chaotic Labor government that has lost control of services across the board,” he said.

“If Labor believes this is just business as usual, then why did they fight so hard to keep it hidden?”

Former Gold Coast superintendent Jim Keogh said the scenarios were “not the job of the police at all”.

“They are being faced with a raging crime crisis in Queensland, and they are being forced to compensate for the failings in other departments,” he said.

“Those police are trained law enforcement officers and that’s what they should be allowed to focus on – and they are being turned into health managers.”

Mr Keogh said it was crucial each department was “funded and resourced properly to be able to do their own jobs”.

Former Gold Coast superintendent Jim Keogh. Picture: Jamie Hanson

But Health Minister Shannon Fentiman backed Mr Miles, and said it was “the job” of police to offer support to patients at hospital when needed, particularly those with psychosis or in serious mental health distress.

“It is really important that police, as a frontline service, are involved with our ambulance service and our hospitals – particularly for those patients who may have come from prison and need health care, or those patients who are experiencing extreme distress and mental ill health.”

Ms Fentiman said she had spoken with Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll about how beat police were facing a spike in call-outs related to mental health.

“It is definitely part of their job these days,” she said.

Ms Carroll said demand for policing services had “increased exponentially”.

The Health Minister pointed to a rollout of co-responder models over the past few years, which was due to be expanded.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman. Picture: David Clark

“The big hospitals that have been mentioned in this spreadsheet, in the last performance data, have seen more and more people presenting, but actually they’re treating people with the recommended time frame,” she said.

But pressed on the inside information showing sometimes ambulances didn’t even show up, Ms Fentiman conceded it wasn’t good enough.

“We have invested in an additional 200 paramedics, just this financial year, they’ve all been employed and they’re all on the front line,” she said.

Mr Miles reiterated that officers had the responsibility to keep the community safe, including health care workers at hospitals.

“Obviously, they do their very best to minimise the amount of time spent in those kinds of circumstances,” he said.

“But ultimately this is our emergency services, our police and our health services working together.”

The Queensland Police Union declined to comment.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli slammed the government’s response to revelations that police were being stretched thin, ramping patients and guarding prisoners at hospitals for up to a week.

“For a Premier yesterday to address that police sitting at an ambulance ramp for eight hours is business as usual is not normal,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“To have two vacancies in the Parliament is not normal.

“It’s a government that is rotting before the eyes of Queenslanders.”

Mr Crisafulli said if the LNP won the state election this year, health and crime would be top priorities.

“If we are given the privilege of governing in October, working harder for Queenslanders will be a priority for us and we will see an end to this chaotic behaviour,” he said.

“We will see an end to a government that is so focused on itself, that it is no longer listening to Queenslanders and no longer focusing on the priorities of Queenslanders.

“The priority of Queenslanders is making sure they can have access to the health system, that the youth crime crisis comes to an end, that their kids can get into a home and the vulnerable have a roof over their heads, that they can afford to pay their electricity bills. They are the priorities of Queenslanders.”