Hospital hits crisis point
Reports of tech trouble, ambulances backed up
THE state’s emergency department crisis has reached Robina Hospital as staff wrestle with the rollout of new technology and more than a dozen ambulances waiting in line to admit patients.
Statistics released yesterday showed 638 patients in March alone waited more than 24 hours in emergency departments at Beaudesert, Brisbane, Logan and Redlands hospitals.
Hospital sources said the crisis had spread to Robina, with the introduction of the new integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) system and a wave of patients with serious cardiac issues.
Health managers say the new technology – a screen on wheels – enables staff to enter patient information like bloods and temperatures in real time, access test results quicker, improve medication management and allow for more visible vital signs monitoring.
“It was on a code yellow (on Saturday),” a hospital source told the Bulletin. “Thirteen ambulances were backed up. They couldn’t get the patients out.”
Code yellow is when a hospital is at peak capacity and while several medical sources maintain Robina reached that level, health authorities deny the code was called.
“No code yellow was called at Robina Hospital over the weekend in relation to demand,” a Gold Coast Health spokesperson said. “We continue to manage demand within normal processes.”
They maintained the ieMR system rollout at Robina had gone to plan without putting patient safety at risk.
“On-the-ground support continues at Robina Hospital as staff become familiar with the change,” the spokesperson said.
A hospital source, furious with the response, said: “It’s just that they’re not calling it a code yellow anymore.”
LNP health spokesperson Ros Bates, who has called on Health Minister Dr Steven Miles to resign, said the pressure on the Coast EDs was due to the ieMR system and the dump-and-run offloading system by ambulances.
“It’s unbelievable that just four days into May and already a Gold Coast hospital plunged into code yellow,” she said.
“This is more evidence that Queensland’s health system is in crisis under the Palaszczuk Labor Government and patients are paying the price.”
Dr Miles said: “This is more scaremongering from Ros Bates. She won’t let anything stand in the way of her talking down our hospitals, especially the truth.”
The city’s public hospitals reached capacity in March, creating a code yellow after a 10 per cent increase in demand for beds across the southeast.
However, frontline staff say the Gold Coast hospitals have been redlining for 18 months.
The Nurses Professional Association, a key nurse lobby group, branded the State Government “incompetent” after it was revealed the Coast’s two public hospitals had 500 fewer beds than the national average.
The hospital source said about Robina: “The ieMR is the problem. It’s a major problem. The staff only got one eight-hour training day.”
THE Robina Hospital is facing a patient load crisis – again.
Several hospital sources say the hospital went into code yellow on Saturday. This is when the emergency department can no longer cope or guarantee patients will get a bed.
The Bulletin contacted the office of Health Minister Dr Steven Miles and later the Gold Coast Health District issued a statement. “No code yellow was called at Robina Hospital over the weekend in relation to demand,” a Gold Coast Health spokesperson said. “While demand for emergency department services remains high, we continue to manage demand within normal processes.”
Hospital sources were again contacted. They say stressed-out frontline health workers are furious with the response. “It’s just that they’re not calling it a code yellow anymore,” a source said.
Whatever happened at Robina at the weekend was out of the norm. Sources aware of the ramping of ambulances counted 13 vehicles backed up.
Part of the reason is the introduction of new integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) system.
This new technology – a screen on wheels – allows to staff to input patient vitals like bloods and temperature. It was rolled out last Wednesday despite warnings that admissions would be slowed.
The other reasons for the system being under strain are patients presenting with complicated cardiac issues, and others prepared to wait to avoid paying for expensive tests.
Meanwhile, in the lead-up to the federal poll on May 18 Labor is out door knocking about its health funding record and shocked to learn the LNP following the same path, wanting to promote its efforts to voters.
Labor is accusing the Abbott-TurnbullMorrison Government of cutting $316 million from Queensland hospitals. The state health budget is a record $1.5 billion hiring an extra 193 doctors and 748 nurses.
The ALP says “we build up health services, the LNP tear them down”.
The LNP says Labor cannot be trusted to fix our hospitals, that its priorities are wrong. LNP MP Ros Bates says the introduction of the new technology was botched, that Labor should have listened to the AMAQ calling for it to be halted. The rapid offload ambulance policy was putting patients at risk.
Voters will see some truth in all each of those arguments. But what cannot be contested is Gold Coast public hospitals as early as March being unable to take any more patients and cancelling surgeries.
The longer term solution is building a new public hospital in the Coast’s fast-growing north. The Nurses Professional Union estimates the city’s public hospitals have 500 fewer beds than the national average. The short-term solution involves about 250 elderly Queenslanders waiting for a Commonwealth-subsidised aged care place and 400 people with a disability needing an NDIS package.
Patients with non-urgent symptoms also need to be educated to visit a bulk billing medical centre within walking distance of the EDs.
On those key points voters need to get answers and commitments from the major parties about fast tracking. Otherwise call it code yellow, call it bed block, it won’t go away.