Cairns Hospital data: Long stay patients and ambulance ramping pose serious problem for CHHHS

Up to 80 long-stay patients taking up Cairns hospital beds have been a significant contributor to 13 days’ worth of crisis code yellow activations this quarter.

Cairns hospital has considered relocating some of the more than 80 long-stay patients clogging up the under-pressure system that logged the equivalent to 13 days’ worth of crisis code yellow activations during the first quarter of this year.

Between January and March the hospital had eight high impact Tier 3 or code yellow activations totalling 314 hours, meaning for a 13-day period, category two surgeries were moved to private hospitals and category three surgeries were suspended and rescheduled, according to latest hospital performance data.

Cairns Hospital quarterly performance figures have revealed the number of long-stay patients taking up bed space within the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service. Picture: Brendan Radke

There was a five per cent increase in emergency department presentations between January and March compared to the same period last year across the Cairns and Hinterland hospital network.

And while all immediately life-threatening presentations were seen to in the recommended time frame of two minutes after arrival, this benchmark was only met in 77 per cent of category 2 or imminently life-threatening cases amid an 8 per cent jump in demand to 6476 patients for the quarter.

A Patient Transferred Off Stretcher Time or ramping rate of 36.1 per cent equated to an increase of 6.1 per cent from the same period in 2023 and a 1.6 increase on 2013’s fourth quarter figure.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Leena Singh said quarterly data showed the service had been running at 100 per cent capacity

“We’ve had, right across the board, a significant increase of people presenting to the emergency department … but when you’re at capacity, which we are, any level of increase puts a lot of strain onto our system,” she said.

The hospital boss said it was difficult to pinpoint the reason for a significant jump in category 2 cases.

Ambulance ramping at the Cairns Hospital earlier this year. Picture: Brendan Radke

Ms Singh said up to 160 long-stay patients across the network who have been in care for more than 35 days accounted for 20-25 per cent of the service’s bed footprint.

“(They) are sitting in beds and could be elsewhere but can’t go anywhere else,” she said.

“Unfortunately up here in the north, we don’t have a lot of other private sector providers that are able to take these patients as quickly as we’d like.

“And they often require a placement in a residential aged care facility or of course the NDIS and with the NDIS we’re seeing some reasonable delays there.”

Cairns Health and Hinterland Health Service (CHHHS) CEO Leena Singh. Picture: Brendan Radke

To relieve the burden on the system imposed by long-stay patients 16 maternity beds under used at the Cairns Private Hospital since the shutdown of birthing services in November last year could form part of the solution.

“We are working with them about using those beds to be able to put the people that don’t necessarily need hospital level care into those beds and 16 (beds) is a great start (but) it’s certainly not enough for us,” Ms Singh said.

A new Surgical and Orthopedic Assessment Unit at Cairns Hospital earlier this year to reduce overall bed pressure and the $26.4m expansion of the Cairns Hospital ED is currently on schedule for completion this year.

Follow @petercarruther1

Originally published as Cairns Hospital data: Long stay patients and ambulance ramping pose serious problem for CHHHS