Health system in crisis: The Courier-Mail series

A Courier-Mail series has revealed the true state of Queensland’s embattled health system, using in-depth analysis of the most recent figures that has.

A Courier-Mail series has revealed the true state of Queensland’s embattled health system, using in-depth analysis of the most recent figures.

The number of Queenslanders waiting in ambulances for urgent care at hospitals has soared more than 25 per cent under the Palaszczuk government and the percentage of elective surgery patients not seen on time has risen by almost 20 per cent.

Sick Queenslanders are languishing on ballooning elective surgery lists where the number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended has doubled in a year – from 10.2 per cent in December 2021 to 22.2 per cent in December 2022.

In December 2015 – during the Palaszczuk government’s first year in power – it was just 3 per cent.

More than 30 per cent of category two patients with life-threatening injuries were not seen within clinically recommended times in the final three months of 2022 as emergency physicians grappled with burnout and fatigue.

The rate of ramping – patients waiting on a stretcher for more than half an hour – improved from 44 per cent to 41 per cent in the last quarter, but overall this figure rose steadily over the decade.

Minister Yvette D'Ath, Question Time, Parliament House, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

Just 13.5 per cent of people were waiting on a stretcher for more than half an hour in December 2014 – less than two months before the Palaszczuk government came to power.

The damning Queensland Health figures come as Queensland strugglers through a statewide and GP specialist shortage.

A Cairns doctor with 67,000 patients on his books says he has been forced to charge his most vulnerable patients after the federal government withdrew incentives worth $100,000.

Up to 70 per cent of all visits to the GP are now related to mental health, which has resulted in calls for every doctor in Queensland to undertake a mandatory placement in psychiatry within two years of graduating.

At the same time, Indigenous Queenslanders are calling for more culturally appropriate treatment in hospitals.

Originally published as Health system in crisis: The Courier-Mail series