Hospitals stretched to limit

AMBULANCE ramping at Gold Coast hospitals has hit crisis point but the Government is clueless on how to fix the problem, warns the State Opposition.

The Bulletin in April warned that one in four Gold Coasters rushed to hospital in ambulances were waiting more than half an hour in the vehicle due to emergency department bottlenecks.

Data to be released today confirms the situation has not been resolved with figures for April and May showing 27 per cent of patients at the Gold Coast University Hospital are not off a stretcher within 30 minutes.

At Robina Hospital, the figures for the same period were 23 per cent and 26 per cent, which compares to the Statewide average of only 10 per cent of patients waiting.

LNP Shadow Health Minister John-Paul Langbroek said he was not surprised that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk failed to mention the issues during her “week-long PR stunt on the Gold Coast”.

“Ambulance ramping is back with a vengeance at Gold Coast hospitals with Queenslanders left lying for hours on stretchers because Labor has no solution,” Mr Langbroek said.

“Worse still is the fact that patients needing admission to hospital are left languishing in emergency departments.

“At last count more than 30 per cent of patients needing a bed in a Gold Coast hospital waited longer than four hours for admission.”

The office of Health Minister Cameron Dick has continued to defend the figures and assured residents that no one was placed in danger.