Lives are being put at risk at Logan Hospital because patients are waiting too long for a bed.
That’s according to the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, spokeswoman, Dr Kim Hansen.
“So, when patients wait more than 8 hours to go into a hospital bed the mortality for patients arriving goes up by 10 percent. So, while we don’t necessarily see it shift to shift we know that patients suffer and mortality increases when we do not have the flow through”.
Dr Hansen has first hand knowledge of the problems at Logan Hospital.
27/02/17 Dr Kim Hansen – Director of St Andrew’s Emergency Centre
“ Logan Hospital has some of the longest waits in Queensland. So, we know that about 100 patients a month spend more than 24 hours in Logan’s emergency department waiting to get into a bed. That is the worst in Queensland. Logan is a very, very busy emergency department – one of the busiest in the state but it has a moderate sized hospital behind it and so it just can’t cope with the volume of patients coming through”.
Dr Hansen adds that the State Government needs to focus on fixing the acute problems at the hospital and at others in Queensland.
“So, first of all we need investment in hospital staff for both emergency departments and the inpatient wards throughout Queensland but especially at Logan Hospital. We need to have efficient and innovative processes with our bed management”.
Logan Hospital is the major health centre for one of the fastest growing regions in the state and provides a range of specialty services for children and adults.
The emergency department treats more than 88,000 patients every year.
