30 July 2021
A five-year snapshot of Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service highlights the achievements of hospitals and staff in managing significant increases in emergency department presentations and surgeries.
Queensland Health Director General Dr John Wakefield said several factors, including population growth, aging population, falling private health insurance rates, increasing, and more recently, the global pandemic, were responsible for the high demand on health services.
“COVID-19 has had a severe impact on our hospitals in the past 18 months,” Dr Wakefield said.
“Whilst we have been successful in minimising community transmission of COVID-19, it was necessary to divert significant staffing into our public health response, testing, tracking and tracing, hotel quarantine, and mass vaccination”.
“There has also been a continued surge in demand for public health services over the past five years, including an extraordinary rise in emergency department presentations and referrals to specialist outpatient services”.
“We are also performing more surgeries as the state’s rate of chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes and heart disease goes up. A growing number of Queenslanders are also ditching their private health insurance and turning to the public health system for treatment.
“We also have a high number of patients spending long periods of time in hospitals while they wait for aged care or disability packages, leading to significant impact on availability of hospital beds. Importantly, hospital is not an appropriate alternative to home or a residential care for the most vulnerable in our society who deserve better.
“While we have significantly increased funding and hired more staff to support both our pandemic response and the everyday delivery of healthcare, it’s no secret the pressure placed on our facilities has been immense.
“In spite of the constant pressure of dealing with unstoppable demand growth, our staff work 24/7 and do an amazing job in providing world class healthcare to all Queenslanders, no matter where they live.
“I commend and celebrate Central Queensland HHS’s hard-working staff and the health services for these achievements.”
Chief Executive Steve Williamson is proud of the efforts of CQ Health staff for delivering safe, timely and effective health care to the Central Queensland community.
“We’ve had a sustained period of unprecedented activity, and staff have been deployed to COVID testing and vaccination clinics, sometimes at very short notice.
“It has been heartening to see the response to these services from our team of fantastic doctors, nurses and support staff willing to put up their hands to keep their community safe.”
Between 2015-16 and 2020-21 Central Queensland’s hospitals reported:
- 33 per cent increase in emergency department presentations (from more than 108,450 to more than 144,790)
- 11 per cent increase in surgeries performed (from more than 6,900 to more than 7,650)
- 49 per cent increase in outpatient appointments (from more than 161,040 to more than 241,200)
- Continued to deliver more than 2,000 babies each year, including private facilities in the region.
In the same period, Central Queensland’s annual operating budget had increased from $488 million to more than $661 million, a 35 per cent growth.
The HHS’s total workforce has grown from 2,719 to 3,472 people (a 27 per cent increase), including 257 to 375 doctors, 1,139 to 1,508 nurses and 72 to 94 midwives.
Quarterly performance data for Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service has been released today, available on the website here.