No beds, ED’s exacerbated, capacity reached: Qld hospitals under alarming pressure

New data reveals alarming pressure on Queensland’s health system as facilities scramble to keep up with the growing demand for beds and the state’s ambulance service loses 500 hours a day to ramping.

Under-pressure hospitals have declared 57 bed shortage emergencies in just 76 days as they scramble to keep up with growing demand across the state.

The Sunday-Mail can reveal the ongoing strain hospitals are having to grapple with, as the state’s peak doctor body called out the state government for not acting on its ambulance ramping plan.

There were 57 capacity-related ‘code yellows’ between January 1 and March 17 this year across the state’s 16 hospital and health services – a considerable jump from the 31 recorded during the same period last year.

It comes after Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in April last year declared nothing would be solved without major reforms as experts called for an overhaul of the stressed health system.

New ‘code yellow’ data has revealed four HHS’ declared capacity-related issues this year when they recorded none during the same period in 2021.

This includes the Wide Bay HHS which declared 12.

Ambulance ramping at the Princes Alexandria Hospital (PA Hospital). Picture: David Clark

Code yellows are issued when increased pressure is placed on a hospital in a short period of time and can be called before a hospital reaches capacity.

The alarming figures come days after a Right to Information document revealed exhausted paramedics were stood down from shifts because of fatigue and left to use personal cars due to an ambulance shortage in 2021.

The United Workers’ Union, which represents ambulance officers, also revealed this week that paramedics had lost up to 500 hours a day this month because they were stuck ramped with patients at emergency departments.

Ms D’Ath told The Sunday-Mail that hospitals around the country were facing extreme demand pressures.

“We’re treating a record number of patients, and Queensland continues to significantly invest in health with a record $22.2 billion budget that is delivering more beds, more frontline staff, new hospitals and seven Satellite Hospitals,” she said.

“We know that our hospitals are only getting busier because of the lack of affordable, bulk-billing GPs, rising private health costs and Scott Morrison’s failure to deliver proper funding for our hospitals.

“We also know that as we’re experiencing a second Omicron wave, hospitals are seeing staff furloughed because they’re Covid positive or close contacts.”

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said Scott Morrison’s failure to deliver funding has contributed to the hospital crisis. Picture: Liam Kidston

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said a sustained Covid-19 wave, severe weather events and record ED growth had posed “significant challenges” for hospitals this year.

“Code yellows are not cause for alarm – they are an effective option that ensure our hospitals continue to provide free, urgent medical treatment and support to those who most need it,” she said.

UWU National Ambulance Co-ordinator Fiona Scalon said Caboolture and Prince Charles Hospitals experienced a surge in demand which resulted in “particularly high ramping times for our members” last week.

She said unions had been calling for significant reform from both the state and federal governments for some time.

AMAQ President Chris Perry said ramping and emergency department pressures were not improving and had been exacerbated by the Omicron outbreak.

“While this is a mild form of Covid, it has led to thousands of health care workers having to isolate because they either have tested positive or are a close contact of an infected person,” he said.

“AMA Queensland’s Ramping Roundtable delivered its five point plan to ease ramping and bed block in our hospitals to the state government last year, but we have yet to see any action.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said there was a time when code yellows were rare events but they had “increasingly becoming business as usual” over the last five years.

“Make no mistake, a code yellow represents a hospital in crisis and a health system at breaking point,” he said.

Originally published as No beds, ED’s exacerbated, capacity reached: Qld hospitals under alarming pressure