Ambulance ramping has worsened in Queensland amid the latest COVID wave, as it's revealed satellite hospitals designed to lessen the load on the health system will not be ready until the end of next year.
New figures from Queensland Health showed 45 per cent of patients were left waiting in an ambulance at emergency departments for more than 30 minutes for the June quarter.
That is a 3 per cent increase on the previous quarter.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath told an estimates hearing at state parliament today the department was working hard to reduce ramping times but the health system had been impacted by waves of COVID and the flu.
"We have made improvements in relation to our patient off stretcher time but we also have faced three waves of Omicron in just seven months," she said.
"It is having an impact and it will continue to have an impact."
The data found emergency departments continued to be under pressure, with Cairns Hospital experiencing its busiest day ever in early May, and its second-busiest day a fortnight later.
Logan Hospital saw its second-highest number of presentations ever.
A total of 575,578 people presented to emergency departments in the June quarter.
The elective surgery wait list decreased from 58,895 in the March quarter to 57,914 and the number of people waiting to see a specialist climbed from 259,884 to 267,242.
Satellite hospital blowout and delay
The Palaszczuk government's key 2020 election commitment to build seven satellite hospitals across south-east Queensland has blown out by $15 million and fallen behind schedule.
The $265-million program was announced by the Queensland government during the 2020 campaign, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk later pledging the seven hospitals would be built by May 2023.
The hospitals at Redland, Caboolture, Kallangur, Tugun, Ripley, Bribie Island and Eight Mile Plains are urgent care centres intended to take pressure off emergency departments by providing day therapy services such as complex wound management and care for minor injuries and illnesses.
Speaking at an estimates hearing at state parliament, Opposition Health spokeswomen Ros Bates said figures in the budget showed the program cost had risen by $15 million to $280 million.
Queensland Health acting director-general Shaun Drummond said the rising cost of building materials was the reason.
"We're experiencing, in all of our construction projects, an inflation impact on, effectively, material supply and cost for construction that is significantly different from what we envisaged pre-COVID," he said.
Mr Drummond said the department was now working to deliver all seven hospitals by the end of 2023.
"Four of those sites [Kallangur, Bribie Island, Tugun and Eight Mile Plains] have had particular challenges with those timeframes and we're continuing to work around how we treat and mitigate the impacts.
"That includes what is happening with the construction industry and interruptions with supplies — whether it's steel [or] other materials [it] is materially affecting all building programs across Australia at the moment.
"We also had two of the sites where we had to do additional work with the local people around Native Title.
"We had a site – the Metro South site – where we selected an alternative and then at the Tugan site we had additional condition issues with regards to that sites we had to work with."
Speaking outside the hearing, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was her "absolute expectation" that the hospitals would be completed by 2023.
"Everybody is experiencing these labour costs at the moment … and I know that they are doing everything they can to get them completed as quickly as possible," she said.
"There has been some alterations for some of them, I think we expanded beds in one particular site but we're of course, taking this very seriously.
"I do want them constructed in 2023."
COVID deaths, hospitalisations fall
Meanwhile, Queensland recorded another 17 deaths and 9,420 new cases of COVID-19 in the latest reporting period.
The number of Queenslanders in hospital with COVID fell below 1,000 for the second consecutive day, with 906 patients being treated in the state’s public and private hospitals, down from 955 yesterday.
There are 30 people with COVID in intensive care.
Across the state, there are 59,005 active COVID cases.
"Once again, the majority of people who have passed away are the seniors in our community," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"I am pleading with Queenslanders, if you are a senior … go and get your booster."
'I did my job'
Ms Palaszczuk was questioned for the first time today since the government announced the Wellcamp COVID quarantine facility on the Darling Downs would be mothballed within days.
She said she "stood by" her tough border approach and record of keeping Queenslanders safe during the pandemic.
"We have had over 700 people go through that facility and … circumstances changed, I did not have a crystal ball that showed that Delta would morph into Omicron … I made the best decision that was put before me at the time to keep Queenslanders safe," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"I did my job."
