Thousands spend longer than 24 hours in Queensland’s public emergency departments

Thousands of patients have languished in Queensland emergency departments for longer than 24 hours as demand for urgent care ramps up pressure on the public system.

Queensland hospitals are under pressure. Picture David Clark

Thousands of patients have languished in Queensland emergency departments for longer than 24 hours as demand for urgent care ramps up pressure on the public system.

New data, released by the state government in response to a question from the Liberal National Party, revealed 4680 patients waited longer than 24 hours in EDs between July and October.

LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates, a nurse and former hospital administrator, said it was frustrating and potentially dangerous for patients to spend that long in ED.

“There is clinical evidence which suggests extended periods spent in the ED can lead to negative or adverse health outcomes,” she said.

Queensland Health aims for 80 per cent patients to be seen and leave an ED within four hours, but last financial year only 62 per cent met the target.

Maria Boulton, president of the Queensland arm of the Australian Medical Association, said patients were in ED longer because there were not enough beds on the wards.

“Which is not ideal because then that bed in the emergency department is not free for someone coming from the outside so they are ramped in an ambulance,” she said. “Then those paramedics aren’t able to go out to the community.”

Ambulance ramping and hospital bed block has resurfaced as a major policy pressure point for the state government after a series of high-profile deaths.

In November, Brisbane mother Cath Groom was found dead on her 52nd birthday after she called triple-0 with chest pains and waited 1.5 hours for an ambulance that never arrived. Her death came hours after Wayne Irving, 67, suffered a fatal heart attack in November after spending three hours ramped outside the Ipswich Hospital because the ED was at capacity.

In early December an 84-year-old man died while waiting for paramedics after a fall at home near Hervey Bay.

Dr Boulton said ambulance ramping and overcrowded public hospitals predated Covid-19, but the pandemic had exacerbated problems, particularly workforce shortages.

She said even with record health spending to increase the number of hospital beds, problems would persist without more doctors and nurses.

Queensland has 2.52 beds per 1000 population – relatively unchanged from the 2.51 beds available when the Labor government was elected in 2015.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has pledged an extra 3378 beds by mid-2029, of which 500 will be ready by July 2024.

“ I’ve been throwing everything at freeing up beds for long-stay patients,” she said.

About 900 people in hospital beds in Queensland are waiting for placements in aged care and disability care, up from 453 in 2020.