Transcript - Public hospital performance figures

Transcript: AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton, ABC Gold Coast, Mornings with Cathy Border, Wednesday 13 September 2023

Subjects: Public hospital performance figures; whooping cough outbreak

CATHY BORDER:   Well, let's talk about health issues. It probably comes as no surprise that the impact on our major hospitals is high and staff are working in overdrive, but figures on the state government's newly revamped hospital performance website show just how dire the situation is. Queensland hospitals have their own tiered plan to assess how they're impacted, with Tier 3 meaning capacity is either limited or exhausted. And from April to June this year, Robina and Gold Coast Uni hospitals each had 11 Tier 3 escalations. Let's look at what this means for patients, for us all as a community. Let's hear from the President of the Australian Medical Association of Queensland, Maria Boulton. Good morning to you.

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Good morning, Cathy.

CATHY BORDER:   Maria, what's your reaction to these figures?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   I think the first thing to say is, isn't it good to have that data available because it tells you exactly what the state of our hospital system is. Without that data, we cannot know where the issues are and where improvement is needed. But having said that, and having read the data, it's not a surprise to us from what we're hearing on the ground. It is really distressing to see that so many of our hospitals are going into that Tier 3 category. Essentially what we would like is the tier system starts at Tier zero and a Tier zero is where all aspects of patient demand are being met and the hospital is functioning at optimal capacity. And that's where we want all hospitals to be.

We've been calling for the federal government to increase hospital funding. We've been calling on the state government to ensure that there is surge capacity in hospitals. Hospitals a lot of the time run at 100 per cent capacity, which leaves no room for any surges. And it's been a particularly difficult year with flu on top of COVID, on top of RSV, but we were having these issues prior to all of that, so something must be done.

CATHY BORDER:   Can we look at Tier 3 escalation? What does that mean inside a hospital, in the corridors? What's happening?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   What it means is that if you are in a hospital, working in a hospital, you're doing the job of two or three people. That's what we're hearing from healthcare workers, nurses, doctors that work in hospitals, that they've never been as busy. And really, if it wasn't for the excellent work that they do, we would be in a much worse spot than what we are in.

But it means that it's really difficult to have patients admitted into hospital because there may not be beds. It may affect surgery, for example, elective surgeries. It may mean that ambulances have to divert their patients to other hospitals if it's safe to do so. It really makes things a lot busier, and it may impact on the services that people receive.

If it's a really busy day in emergency, which most of them are, as our colleagues will tell you, it may mean that people are waiting for longer or patients will be seen on a stretcher or in an ambulance. And sadly, we're hearing a lot of reports where some emergency healthcare workers go to work and they spend the whole day treating people either on a stretcher or in an ambulance rather than in an emergency cubicle.

CATHY BORDER:   Gosh, that puts it in perspective.

Just on another issue, Maria, while we have you, as we heard in our news headlines there, four cases of whooping cough have now been confirmed at Burleigh Heads State School. How quickly does whooping cough spread and what are the symptoms that people should look out for?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Whooping cough or pertussis is spread quite easily. People normally develop a cough and it might be a dry cough, it might be a cough with a little bit of moisture. It's a really annoying cough. And kids or adults can end up vomiting.

The issue with whooping cough is that it's dangerous, especially to newborns and especially to people who have either advanced age or have chronic lung diseases. And even for adults, you can be stuck with a cough for six weeks. So it's not pleasant.

But particularly what concerns us is babies. When you've seen a baby with whooping cough, they struggle to breathe. It is awful and it can be lethal. That's why it's really important that people do access the vaccines, especially pregnant women, because pregnant women can be vaccinated against whooping cough, and that means that their baby will be born with some antibodies.

There's also all these free vaccines available under the free immunisation program, and if you're an adult and you haven't had a whooping cough vaccine in the last five years, certainly consider getting one. They've been around for a long time. However, like all vaccines, they're not 100 per cent effective. So if you develop any symptoms of cough, particularly at the moment, go get tested, ring your GP, make a phone appointment. Your GP can arrange for you to have a PCR test that can test for whooping cough, it can test for flu, it can test for COVID. Particularly if you are in one of those high risk groups where if you do develop a lung infection, it puts you at high risk of severe disease. And you know, it does spread and we do see outbreaks from time to time.

CATHY BORDER:   As you say, err on the side of caution. Good to hear your expert advice. Thank you. Maria Boulton there, President of the Australian Medical Association of Queensland.