HOSPITALS NEED HELP
THE State Government urgently needs to address the city’s public health system. It is on life support.
Stressed frontline staff have come to the Bulletin a number of times in the past four months at their wit’s end by a lack of resources and clogged workloads.
In February, nurses told us they had to put their hand in their pocket to buy food for hungry patients because management had imposed a sandwich quota.
Weeks later it was revealed the Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) was one of 10 hospitals in southeast Queensland that was at capacity and unable to service the “unprecedented” number of patients walking into emergency department.
The State Government said presentations to Gold Coast public hospitals had jumped 10 per cent on the same time last year and had been caused by a spike in influenza numbers. However, Bulletin research at the time showed there had been only 200 extra cases when compared to the corresponding period last year.
One nurse said the closure of the Carrara Health Centre had affected rehab and interim care. Fifty-six beds were lost and replaced by only 10 at the university hospital.
A key nurse lobby group branded the State Government “incompetent” after it was revealed the Gold Coast’s two public hospitals had 500 fewer beds than the national average. The hospitals share 1000 beds between them, well down on other major cities in Australia.
Nurses told the Bulletin the crisis had become so bad they had to treat patients in the corridors due to a lack of beds and been asked to do double shifts on days off. “We somehow just cope,” one nurse said. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk blamed the Federal Government and could not guarantee when the health crisis would end. In Parliament she suggested Coast MP Ros Bates and LNP leader Deb Frecklington phone Prime Minister Scott Morrison to fund another 200 aged-care beds to transport the elderly and frail from public hospitals.
The subject got so touchy last month that authorities declined to acknowledge that Robina Hospital went into a code yellow “capacity shutdown”. This is when the ED can no longer cope or guarantee patients a bed. The denial infuriated staff: “It’s just that they’re not calling it a code yellow anymore.”
Last week, the Bulletin reported the Gold Coast and Robina hospitals were in danger of losing accreditation to train young doctors, placing further workload on frontline services. A damning report revealed Gold Coast Health had until January to sort out concerns around intern overtime, unclear learning objectives, assessment and the confidentiality of performance data.
Frontline staff say the Gold Coast hospitals have been red-lining for 18 months.
“The issue has been that GCUH was not built with enough capacity to expand with our growing population,” a nurse said.
Staff believe their goodwill is being abused and the harder they work, the more they are being taken for granted.
The city’s public health system needs an injection. Our heroes on the frontline need better resources and help, and the State Government needs to show its intensions by investing in a new facility in the city’s fast-growing north. Without it, we are only hoping for a miracle.