Kids left waiting for help
7000 children left too long in emergency depts
MORE than 7000 Queensland children waited too long for treatment at hospital emergency departments last month.
The latest hospital performance snapshot reveals an average of 22 per cent of kids aged 14 and under who went to the State’s emergency departments waited longer than “clinically recommended”.
This includes 19 per cent of patients triaged as category two – “imminently life-threatening” – who should be seen within 10 minutes and 31 per cent of those deemed category three – “potentially life-threatening”.
However, all category one patients, the most seriously sick or injured, were seen within the clinically recommended time. Data for individual hospitals shows Gold Coast University Hospital failed to see 34 per cent, or 747, of children on time. The state’s best performing hospital was the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, which failed to see 23 per cent of children within the recommended timeframe.
At the Queensland Children’s Hospital, 30 per cent of emergency department patients waited too long.
Opposition leader Deb Frecklington said the government’s priority should be making sure our sickest kids receive the emergency care they needed.
“As a mother, it breaks my heart that we have kids with cancer and other serious health issues being treated in kitchens because of a chronic bed shortage,” she said.
A Queensland Health spokeswoman defended the data, saying the majority of children who attended Queensland’s hospitals were seen on time. “Last month all urgent cases involving children 14 and under were seen within clinically recommended time frames,” she said.
“Queensland’s emergency department doctors and nurses work tirelessly to make sure all critically ill people are seen on time. They do a tremendous job of taking care of Queenslanders when they are sick.”
In 2017-18 Queensland emergency departments saw over 1.9 million patients – an increase of 3.2 per cent on the previous year.
On average, of the 155,000 ED presentations across Queensland public hospitals every month, 32 per cent are ailments a GP could treat.