Queensland’s head audit office has handed down its recommendations to overcome long wait times in emergency departments within the state’s public hospitals.
The Queensland government announced a $263 million injection to address the Queensland Audit Office’s report, which ranked Logan Metro Hospital among the lowest performing emergency departments in the state.
At Logan Metro Hospital, just above half of the patients between April and June this year were seen within the recommended wait times for cases deemed to be imminently life threatening and potentially life threatening.
Queensland’s minister for health Yvette D’Arth said the funding will increase hospital capacities and improve wait times.
“As well as delivering improved patient flow and more transfer nurses, this $263.7 million funding injection is adding an additional 416 beds to our hospital capacity ‐ and that’s one of the keys to improving ED wait times,” she said.
One public hospital in the state, Mount Isa Hospital, met Queensland Health’s targets for patient handover times from ambulances and the overall time it takes for patients to be treated.
According to the QAC report, the expected standard is for patients to be treated within four hours, but that only happened for 65 per cent of patients between July 2020 and February this year.
The hospital was also in the bottom two performers for patient stretcher times, with just over 55 per cent being handed over from ambulances within the expected 30-minute window.
Hospitals across the state were found to be overwhelmed with a high demand for services resulting from the strain placed on the system by fast population growth and more people presenting with “complex issues”.
- following up source (AMA or another) who can talk about what happens now with the recommendations, how they are prioritised, when they will be delivered etc.
- Waiting for response from Minister’s office as to whether Logan hospital will benefit from the $263 million injection
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