The vital stats behind how we stock our hospitals

Each day an average of 1 million vital medical products are distributed by Queensland Health to hospitals across the state.

And in the south-east corner alone, the department’s transport and logistics staff are travelling more than 4 million kilometres every year — the equivalent of to the moon and back 10 times over — to deliver consumables like gloves, masks and bandages.

Those numbers are astronomical, but they represent the vital products and complexities of delivering them to Queensland patients so they can receive world-class healthcare each and every day.

Acting Deputy Director-General Corporate Services Division Damian Green said Queensland Health’s Supply Chain Surety Branch delivered 365 million medical products to frontline health workers in 2022-23, overcoming global supply challenges.

“We’re ensuring our hospitals and our health facilities around the state have the essential items they need to provide world-class care for Queenslanders,” Mr Green said.

“We’re fortunate to have a dedicated, highly skilled team of supply chain professionals who are making sure our hard-working clinicians have the supplies they need to deliver healthcare.

“The challenges to make this happen are immense. Across the world, health jurisdictions like ours are facing workforce challenges and raw material shortages.

“Manufacturing and logistics systems are running at full capacity for peak periods, making it difficult to source products in the volume needed and in the timeframes required.

“But our supply and logistics teams work tirelessly every day to ensure our health services receive the critical supplies they need.”

In the past financial year, Queensland Health delivered:

• 184 million medical gloves
• 35 million masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE)
• 33 million syringes and related accessories
• 17 million bandages and dressings
• 8 million surgical instrument sets
• 4 million cannulas and catheters
• 354,000 airway management products
• 324,000 bedpans and urinals, and
• 295,000 suture products.

About 75 per cent of the products are used by health staff in south-east and southern Queensland.

In addition to medical consumables, the Supply Chain Surety Branch also provides pharmaceuticals and linen services to hospitals.

Mr Green said the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused global medical supply shortages, highlighted the need to strengthen the state’s supply chain network in order to source and store critical supplies more strategically.

“Four new warehouses and distribution centres have been established in Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville, and Brisbane, collectively increasing capacity across these sites by 300 per cent since July 2021.

“This enhanced network represents a strategic distribution of stock across the state, providing redundancy during seasonal weather events, improving access to supplies for regional and remote areas and enabling the continued delivery of frontline services.

“Supplies stored in these facilities include intensive care consumables, PPE, medical consumables and equipment, sanitisers, cleaning products and critical pathology supplies.”

Medical consumable distribution (regional breakdown)