Preventable health issues clogging up Gold Coast hospitals

Preventable health issues are clogging up Gold Coast hospitals, with statistics showing more than 20,000 admissions could have been avoided altogether through earlier treatment with a GP.

PREVENTABLE health issues are clogging our hospitals, using up more than 65,000 bed days across the Gold Coast public health network in a single year — adding to the pressure doctors and nurses are already under.

According to local doctors, a single hospital bed day can cost taxpayers up to $2000.

New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals that a total of 20,263 potentially preventable admissions to hospital occurred in the Gold Coast health network in the 2016-2017 financial year.

Hospital day beds can cost taxpayers $2000

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The term “potentially preventable’’ does not mean the patient did not need to be admitted, but that the issue could have been prevented through earlier treatment by a GP, for example.

The region has the eighth highest rate of preventable hospitalisations in the country out of 31 health networks.

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At least 6525 Gold Coast bed days were lost due to vaccine-preventable conditions.

On the Coast, 5095 bed days were lost due to gangrene, 1948 due to dental conditions and 5568 due to diabetes complications. Nationally, 6 per cent of all hospital admissions were potentially preventable.

The issue has a huge impact on the health care system

Due to a number of outpatient initiatives, community clinics and in home care, the health network has seen a steady decrease in preventable hospitalisation rates, but totals continue to increase as the population booms.

The immediate past president of the Gold Coast Medical Association and local GP Sonu Haikerwal said the issue had a huge impact on the health system.

“It is a terrible burden on the system when you work it out. The dollar amount alone is at least $2000 a day per bed for things that could have been treated by a visit to the GP,” Dr Haikerwal said.

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“We need to be taking responsibility for our own health and our neighbour’s health and think more like a community.

Dr Haikerwal said many cases could be managed by primary carers. Picture: Supplied

“The numbers really baffle me when I see we have like 700 GPs, we are not lacking in infrastructure and an affluent population compared to some other areas.”

Dr Haikerwal said many cases could be managed by primary carers.

“I did a tour of the Gold Coast University Hospital emergency department and at least 20 of the patients there at the time could have seen a GP instead,” she said.

“An ED visit alone can cost about $500 to the taxpayer.”

GCUH emergency department director Dr David Green, who oversees the treatment of at least 330 patients daily, said any reduction in preventable admissions would benefit the system.

“If we could avoid extra hospitalisations, of course we could minimise cost and the burden on staff. It is an extremely busy place and we are putting though a huge number of admissions daily,” Dr Green said.

“It is hard to quantify the impact of these numbers when you are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

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“By the time they get to us, they do usually need to be hospitalised.

“The numbers don’t quantify the other preventable admissions we deal with, for example trauma caused by alcohol which you could argue also could have been avoided.”

As the head of the busiest emergency department in Australia, Dr Green said steps to reduce transfers from aged care centres to hospitals would assist with the workload.

“We need to realise we will see an increase in things like dementia as people live longer so managing elderly care will be a pressure point,’’ he said.

“Most aged care facilities mandate all falls need to go to hospital for assessment.

“If you had a GP in-house you would avoid three-quarters of those admissions.”

AMA Queensland president Dr Dilip Dhupelia said patients with chronic medical conditions should be seeing their GP for regular reviews.