‘Bureaucrats interfering’: Doctors forced to treat ramped patients over seriously ill

Queensland’s top medical body claims bureaucrats are interfering in frontline medical priorities in a bid to make hospital performance data look better

Desperately ill Queenslanders are being overlooked in emergency departments as bureaucrats force doctors to prioritise ambulance-ramped patients in a bid to polish performance data, in claims made by the state’s top medical body.

“Patient safety trumps KPIs at all times. Senior executives need to stay out of decisions and let our highly trained medical professionals do their jobs,” Australian Medical Association Queensland president Nick Yim said.

“It might make hospital performance data look better on paper to prioritise less serious cases who can be moved through EDs or taken off the ramp faster but it is putting patients in danger and demoralising staff.”

This comes as health chiefs were hammered this week at Budget Estimates over the critical state of Queensland emergency departments and delayed treatments.

The AMAQ sent an email, obtained by The Sunday Mail, to Director-General Queensland Health Michael Walsh outlining shocking claims from distressed medics in Caboolture Hospital about the level of bureaucratic interference.

Ambulance ramping at the PA Hospita. Picture: David Clark

A Queensland Health spokesman said the department makes “no apologies” for working hard to ensure ambulances are back into the community as quickly as possible, but that “the most critical patients who present to our EDs are always seen immediately, regardless of whether or not they arrive in an ambulance.”

The AMAQ claims staff are under so much stress with the barriers to doing their job there are regular occurrences of doctors crying at work or vomiting from work-induced anxiety.

It also has grave fears over the retention of valuable doctors who are forced to put aside their medical instinct.

While the email references activities at Caboolture Hospital and Cairns Hospital, Dr Yim fears strategies to prioritise the offloading of ramped patients against medical advice is likely happening across the state.

The email to Mr Walsh states: “Doctors have reported that patient safety is being put at risk with several incidents of senior executives interfering in Senior Medical Officer (SMO) decisions about patient prioritisation and assessment. Clinicians also state the executive interference is divisive and workloads are unsafe, pushing staff beyond breaking point and further compromising patient care.”

Dr Nick Yim, president of the AMAQ.

There are also claims that executives are directing wards to accept patients from the ED irrespective of ward circumstances, workloads or time of day.

The AMAQ missive alleges that nurses are being pressured to dob in doctors who are not following bosses directives sparking division in already overwhelmed departments.

“AMAQ urges Queensland Health to ensure there is no executive interference in

clinical decision making at any hospital and health service to protect patients and staff

wellbeing. We also support our members’ views that new beds must not be opened until there are sufficient medical and nursing staff to service them safely and sustainably,” the director general was told.

Originally published as ‘Bureaucrats interfering’: Doctors forced to treat ramped patients over seriously ill