Gold Coast emergency health chaos revealed

About half of all patients who presented to the Gold Coast Hospital emergency department experienced ramping or waited longer than recommended last December.

Leader of the LNP John-Paul Langbroek said the Minister for Health had been forced to release the data because of a Right to Information request from the State Opposition.

“A lack of hospital beds meant that only 44 per cent of people who presented to the Gold Coast Hospital emergency department were treated within clinically recommended time frames,” Mr Langbroek said.

“What’s worse is that only 460 of the 1013 people who required treatment within 10 minutes were seen on time during December.

“This is just not good enough — these are people experiencing heart attacks, breathing problems or severe fractures and every minute can mean the difference between life and death.

“Some of these patients were forced to wait before they even got inside, with almost half of all patients that arrived in an ambulance enduring ramping outside the hospital.

“Ambulance officers spent 304 hours, or almost 13 days, parked outside the hospital waiting for beds to become available inside the hospital.”

Mr Langbroek said the December data showed that 737 people gave up on waiting and went home without receiving treatment — an increase of more than 100 people on the previous month.

“This is very dangerous — these patients are risking complications down the track.

“This secret data shows just how badly Bligh and Labor have failed the Gold Coast by focusing on politics not patients.

“These figures highlight just how badly Bligh and Labor have failed Queenslanders through a lack of planning and investment in health infrastructure.”