Australia - Queensland - Hospital bed shortages

[FrenchieGirl]

No hospital bed for Qld swine flu victim

AAP
August 2, 2009, 6:49 pm

A seriously ill man had to be flown for more than four hours in two rescue helicopters because of bed shortages at north Queensland hospitals.

Phillip Dowler, chief executive of RACQ CQ Rescue, said on Sunday that the incident highlighted the inefficiency of the state's air services for medical patients.

Mr Dowler said the transportation of the man, who has suspected swine flu, cost Queensland taxpayers more than $30,000.

A flight in a Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) plane would have cost about $8,000.

Due to bed shortages, the 48-year-old man from the Atherton Tablelands could not be treated at either Cairns or Townsville hospitals.

He was carried from Cairns to Townsville and on to Mackay - in two different helicopters - and was finally admitted to hospital in Mackay in a serious condition.

Mr Dowler said taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for the helicopter flights.

"Queensland Health either need to provide immediate extra funding for the RFDS or look at other models," he added.

The operation also meant the Cairns and Mackay regions were without a rescue helicopter for several hours.

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Australia - Queensland - Hospital bed shortages

Swine flu emergency

Roger Dickson

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

? The Cairns Post



TOP doctors are pleading with people who have flu-like symptoms not in a vulnerable category to stay away from Cairns Base Hospital as the facility has reached capacity.

The move comes on the heels of the arrival of two of four new ventilators at the hospital, part of a rush order of 50 by Queensland Health to help cope with a swine flu pandemic that is stretching health services to the limit.

The other pair of ventilators is expected tomorrow, taking the total number to 16 and increasing the hospital?s intensive care unit capacity by a quarter.

Surgery recovery units equipped with oxygen may also be used should the number of serious cases continue to rise.

The arrival of the new units has come as a relief to specialists and hospital directors who could not accommodate a serious swine flu case, who on the weekend was also knocked back at Townsville hospital before finally being admitted at Mackay.

Cairns Base Hospital Emergency Department specialist Jim Reeves said the intensive care unit was ventilating 11 swine flu patients with one machine on standby in case there was a break down.

Once the new units come on line two overall will remain on standby.

"If necessary with those extra ventilators we could put them in a high-dependency area outside of the intensive care unit where low dependency patients could be ventilated," Dr Reeves said.

He said some of the swine flu patients being ventilated had been on the machines for four weeks and could face another two.

"That is a long time on a ventilator when you have a lot of swine flu patients," Dr Reeves said.

Dr Reeves said while the emergency department would remain open all hours and nobody would be turned away, the number of presentations had increased by up to 30 a day, many of which could have been handled by general
practitioners.

"The pressure on the emergency department has increased significantly in the past few weeks, it has increased on the hospital as a whole," he said.

"We have had to set aside different sections of the department to try to quarantine patients with swine flu just to try to reduce the risk of transmission to other patients.

"With increased numbers of patients actually having to be admitted to hospital some of those patients have had to stay in the emergency department as there is not enough room in other areas."

Dr Reeves said if patients were not in a high-risk category and had minor complaints they should consider seeing their GPs.

Meanwhile, Queensland Health is advising GPs not to prescribe Tamiflu to those not at high risk or with a complicating condition.

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/08/04/55875_local-news.html