Gold Coast University Hospital emergency department boosts capacity amid rise in life-threatening cases

Gold Coast University Hospital is taking action to address a growing challenge in its emergency department.

A “small but significant” step in mitigating ambulance ramping across the Coast has just been unveiled at Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH).

An additional seven stretcher bays and a dedicated low stimulus space for mental health presentations has been added to the emergency department triage and ambulance offload areas.

The $1.7 million upgrade was designed to mitigate overflow, improve patient safety and improve ambulance turnover to get them back on the roads.

Ambulances ramped at the Gold Coast University Hospital, 2023.

Southport MP and health committee chair Rob Molhoek said the expansion was a “small but significant” step in taking some of the pressure off the state’s busiest emergency department.

“It’s a project that the department worked on for some time,” he said.

“They’ve been able to reallocate some services and create more space so they can improve patient safety and off stretcher times to free the ambulance up to get them back out doing what they need to be doing, so it’s an important move.”

Gold Coast Health emergency care acting clinical director Haylay Frieslich said the changes will allow staff to identify who requires space first, therefore allowing ambulances to return to the community.

“The whole of the Gold Coast is our responsibility in terms of emergency care, so we do worry about those patients who are waiting at home to be brought to one of our facilities,” she said.

In the last financial year more than 204,000 patients have presented across Gold Coast Health emergency departments with around 360 to 380 patients a day presenting at GCUH ED alone. Gold Coast Health data shows an increase of 5.3 per cent for ambulance arrivals across the board.

Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast, Queensland. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Richard Gosling

Ms Frieslich said every department is seeing an increase year on year – but the biggest challenge for emergency departments is the increase in life-threatening presentations.

There has been an increase of 15.7 per cent in category one and two patients (life-threatening cases requiring complex care), which means more resources are needed.

“All of these initiatives are balanced and give us an opportunity to make sure we’re providing the care to the sickest, as well as caring for those other patients in the community that need care, not just that high level care,” Ms Frieslich said.

“It’s an acute concern for a clinician like myself, knowing that there’s patients in the community waiting for ambulances, and so that’s why we’ve done forward thinking initiatives to try and improve ambulance access to the community.”

The upgrade at GCUH comes amid uncertainty about the timeline for a new hospital under construction at Coomera.

Although work is under way on the facility, the Crisafulli government in April revealed it had gone back to the drawing board on plans for the hospital to boost it from 404 to more than 600 beds.