This is a crisis.
That’s 17 staff you can no longer rely on.
It must be impacting services at the Gympie Hospital.
The problems with the paediatric ward were the result of staffing issues, so to lose 17 staff
will strain an overloaded system.
I am hearing anecdotally that staff are run off their feet, stressed, and overworked.
It has been reported directly to me about a ‘toxic culture’, ‘horrendous workplace bullying’
and ‘discriminatory behaviour’.
I am receiving almost daily reports from Queensland health staff.
There’s a lack of transparency, a culture of secrecy and cover ups and stalling.
At Gympie hospital some services are removed altogether, and no one finds out until they
notice a change in what’s provided or a loss of services.
Services are stretched, patients are transferred to the Sunshine Coast, which is having its own
problems.
On Monday I was advised that SCUH predicts that 30% of the staff will be in stress
leave/sick leave/fatigue leave by March 2022.
I was told that staff are ‘concerned with the lack of equipment, and patient care, given the
significant staff deficits resulting in elective surgeries to be postponed this month, even with
no current covid in our community’.
Staff tell me that Queensland health is trying to spin its way out of problems and massage
messages.
On every indicator the Queensland health system is in crisis.
The loss of staff at Gympie is on top of the other problems at the hospital.
Whichever statistic you look at ambulance ramping is soaring.
In the month of June more than 30% of patients were spending more than 30 minutes in
loading bays waiting to be admitted for treatment at Gympie Hospital.
That’s the latest available data the Government is willing to release.
In September the Queensland Auditor General (QAO) found that the Gympie Hospital has
not met clinical recommended targets for the emergency department and ambulance ramping.
These are front-line services, often the first experience when you go to hospital.
In the three months of the June quarter ambulance ramping was 29% which is an increase of
9.3% over the same period last year.
This is not the fault of Covid.
And now the Master Clinical Services Plan has revealed that the hospital cannot provide the
level of service this community deserves.
11 November 2021
Contact: Tony Perrett 5329 5100