These are shocking figures but in all honesty we cannot lay the blame on Nambour Hospitals' staff The staff at the hospital are hard working dedicated people but without the resources to back them up this was a moral to happen sooner or later.The blame for the inadequate results must be placed squarely at the feet of the Queensland State Government and their continued denial of how urgently we need another hospital.Our equally hard working Ambulance Officers cannot be blamed either.These men and women who come to our rescue are just as frustrated by what is happening as you and I are.We, the people also must accept a portion of the blame for the overcrowding of the emergency department when we clog it up with things that could be fixed at a local medical centre. As I have said in the past not everyone can afford an upfront fee at a medical centre and at a rough guess it is the disadvantaged, unemployed, elderly and lower income people who cannot afford that fee so they have nowhere else to go for help.Surely the medical centres could accept the gap payment between what is paid by Medicare and what the full fee is instead of demanding the full fee and then sending the patient to the Medicare office to get the rebate.

Why say anything it is obvious that no one out there is listening.Anna is to busy building roads to spend money on health.
If Rudd want's to win the next election he must make health and hospitals a federal responsibility,how much longer is he going to wait before he realises just how incompetent our State Government is?Come on Kevin remember that those who can do,those who can't talk!You have done enough talking let's have some action - NOW!

It's a hospital...believe it or not, and unfortunately, people always have and always will die there.

Certainly not disagreeing though that the coast desperately needs the Kawana Hospital. And it's great that the Daily keeps this important issue in their headlines.

Not good enough, understaffed and overworked....
Are we in a third world country ???
Seems so, Going by the Public Hospital System.
Absolute disgrace.

Of course people die in emergency, they are taken there because they are gravely ill or injured, this report does not prove any link between the number of deaths and excessive waiting times for patients its just scaremongering.

I was one of those who walked out of emergency against advice, the doctors and nurses had provided excellent care and advice with good humour and patience but have to cover themselves from the risk of litigation so naturally were being overly cautious. I chose to leave because I wanted to go home not because of the waiting time.

Thank you Nambour ED for looking after me when I needed it despite all the difficultes you face.

Yes - the results are absolutely shocking and I blame the big shots at Queensland Health !!
The staff in the ED at Nambour are doing the very best they can.
I cannot understand how QH think because while the nursing and medical departments are understaffed they keep employing new operational (cleaning, wards, catering) staff - There are SO MANY casual cleaners that some of them are only getting 16 hours/fortnight !
I just dont get it !!!!
Wake up Queensland health and get your priorities in order !

For crying out loud will you people please leave Nambour Hospital alone? You are making it sound like the staff are personally responsible, its an emergency ward - people go there when they are seriously injured or sick, of course people are going to die. Why don't you do a story about our good friend Anna - even better why don't you try and contact her for an interview about how she thinks the Sunshine Coast is irrelevant to the rest of QLD and why she thinks we don't need medical facilities. Or why don't you do a poll to see who actually voted for Labour in the first place and whether or not they are happy with what they voted. I didn't, never have, never will, this is why!

- As we say in our editorial today, this is not about attacking the hospital staff at all - never has and never will be. It's about standing up for them and saying they deserve better. They deserve to go to work knowing there will be beds to put people in when they present at emergency. The deserve to go to work knowing there will be enough staff to reduce the risk of someone dying. We are not saying there are people dying in our emergency ward unnecessarily - what we are reporting are the facts that the official reports show. Putting the deaths aside, what the other figures clearly show is that in some categories, patients are waiting too long. It's just another indication of why we need a new hospital at Kawana - and sooner not later - Editor

Oh and if Rudd wins the next election, i'm moving to New Zealand - i don't understand WHY anyone voted for him.

I like my sport as much as the next person, but medical case is something that should be fixed *before* any more tax payer money gets thrown at stadiums, events, advertising etc. The amount of money the state government pays to have that race on the Gold Coast, err sorry 'contributes' could be much better spent on hospitals.

Ed, Not being a resident of the Sunshine Coast, it is always good to see updates to various issues facing the people of the S/Coast and I was annoyed when I learnt of the latest figures for our hospital system which remains in crisis. I was also annoyed when I heard about the massive hours being wasted by members of the Queensland Ambulance Service because they couldn't transfer their patients to E&D. The culture within the Department of Health's Charlotte Street, Brisbane complex is clearly in motion and yet; who told the Queensland public that we had turned the corner? We know that the Minister for Health and Deputy Premier is being restrained because this state is broke. However, as the government continues to mass populate this State, it is now more urgent that this government is booted out at the next election (state). Where are the Queensland Greens on this issue and other important ones? They're suppose to be part of the federal group and yet, we only hear from them when a election is near.
Whilst I fully support the comments from sunnyone44_5 from Mooloolaba, Queensland,
09 February 2010 5:34 a.m, I also note the response from golfito from Maroochydore, Queensland
09 February 2010 5:38 a.m. I have checked the Hansard record of the House of Represenatives and Kevin Rudd was asked about taking over the hospital system and appears to be some movement on that question. However; do we really think that the ALP is compassionate?

Excellent response Ed !
Tinkerbell - I hear your frustration BUT, like the Editor said - nobody is judging the competence of the nursing staff at all. They are an amazing lot of people and are run off their feet trying to save lives with very little support from the Government. (they dont even have decent parking and spend a fortune on fines to the council !!!) ;-)

I hope that noone from the SCD ever finds themselves at Nabour General expecting treatment because I wouldn't blame the staff there for making them wait as long as possible.

Its shameful the way this paper continually attacks NGH.

Its good that you are campaigning for a new hospital but to do it by constantly denegrating and degrading the wonderful staff who save lives every day is embarrassing and childish.

This state and indeed our entire nations health system is in terrible shape.

When will our governments stand up and do something?

Dont blame the Rudd Government, they're doing their best to repair the country after Jonny Howard's created all the cracks and stains in the Health Industry.

My personal experience with Nambours emergency Dept: My daughter was very sick for many days she was dying, A 15 year old girl with hydrocephalus and a tumor on her brain stem.

The registra of Emergancy keep telling me to take her home. He said she had a very bad virus that there was a shortage of beds and they where for sick people. He got very mean and insisted a nurse put her in a wheel chair and take her away from the hospital.

Fortunately after trying to get a limp, floppy child who had been bed ridden for 12 days- into a car, the nurse that wheeled her out came outside and said she would try to get another Dr to get a second opinion.

ThankGod!!!... she questioned his false verdict. My daughter then got raced to Royal Brisbane Hospital for brain surgery.

hi debbiemagee from Maroochydore.............

from the Editor: "As we say in our editorial today, this is not about attacking the hospital staff at all - never has and never will be. It's about standing up for them and saying they deserve better. They deserve to go to work knowing there will be beds to put people in when they present at emergency."

Look at the FACTS and FIGURES - people will continue to wait and perhaps die at NGH due to it being overcrowded !!!! Use your energy to appeal to the Government for a new hospital ;-)

It would seem a matter the alternative Government would be keen to commit to. Particularly given the local voting predisposition.

It has committed to doing exactly what? And given it doesn't have to do anything to win votes here, why do people believe it will?

Where else are they expected to die? The gross underfunding and lack of community support for palliative care means that many more end up in Intensive Care Units. It is a political issue, but I do not think it is a party political issue. Politicians of both persuasions have consistently denied community health education which is critical to people being self managing and ontop of disease. Until the recent Commonwealth Government actually ramped up the spending in that area, it had been going backwards fro three decades. This is just another in the long list of hospital stir articles generated by this alleged newspaper. Rather than look at the realities all we get is stir, stir, stir.

Foolsgold got it right. Of Course people die in emergency departments. Consider that victims of major trauma on the Coast are taken to Nambour.
The Hospital is situated just off a major highway. Tsoko, do you think that the doctors and nurses are the only ones keeping the hospital running. Quodos to the operational and admin staff at all hospitals.

What has numbat Lucas got to say about this disgrace? More spin, lies & dribble????? Thought so.

People die in hospital? really. Who would have thought. Leave the nursing staff alone, they are doing their best. My wife is a nurse and is stuffed when she comes home. You can't tell me that the staff are to blame. The administrators on the other hand.

None of the Hospital Now stories are about the staff. The staff at Nambour Hospital are doing are a great job with what little resources they have.
The state government figures speak for themselves - figures released today also showed that ambulances spent 241 hours, or 10 days, ramping outside the two Sunshine Coast emergency departments.
The Coast’s population is tipped to swell to 500,000 within 20 years. These population changes underpin an expected increase of almost 80% in demand for in-patient care. We need a new hospital sooner rather than later.

mmmmmm from Glenview -

KUDOS indeed to the operational staff !!! They do a thankless job too, just like the admin and medical staff. You clearly misunderstood my comment or perhaps I didnt explain properly ?

What I mean is that the operational department is ridiculously overstaffed - where as I believe the medical staff are understaffed. In November '09 +/-
45 operational staff were employed and then in January '10 another +/- 30 joined the team ... resulting in them all getting a pathetic amount of hours work each fortnight - I dont understand why they keep employing operational staff when the emergency department is in dire need of attention !!!!

My point being - Queensland health is clearly confused and needs to prioritise !!

To us the whole system is in chaos, on advise from medical professionals we had spent just under two hours at caloundra AAE sitting in a waiting room as it was outside our GP"s hours and a chemist advised that we go to the nearest hospital which we selected caloundra as they also have a after hours GP that we would see as a first choice.

The after hours GP receptionist told us that they could not carry out the medical procedure needed and we would have to go to outpatients...Out patients was busy as and we felt guilty sitting there and seeing all the ambulance and serious cases roll up and where imformed that it would be another 1-2 hours wait.

On asking if we could do some thing our selves or have a nurse or aide carry out the procedure we where told that only a doctor could even as much as the wanted too they could not... Eventually we would risk carrying out the procedure our selves and see the doctor in the morning The Procedure being "Flushing out Mud from a child's Ear"

Why couldn't a nurse or Aide do this yet alone the GP at the After hours Clinic who choose to have us put more strain on the over stretched hospital emergency service..
Why is there not options for to see a nurse rather than Doctors..

December quarterly report for comparison:
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/performa...

There were were a number of dead on arrivals as well - car accidents, party trauma....

It'd be interesting to know the breakdown on days - i believe weekends are the worst and a fair amount of time is given to sporting accidents and drinking related incidents..............

Societal problems.

How disgusting is the public hospital system but blame is with the Government and also private practice Doctors who refuse to bulk bill I know an elderly lady who is a pensioner and yesterday was told by her Doctor that come July they will no longer Bulk bill Pensioners as they are not getting enough back from medicare , so she has to find $60.00 upfront to see her Dr and this is a big medical centre in the heart of Maroochydore with about 13 DRs who guareentee to see a dr on the day if they are sick might not be her Dr but a Dr none the less,she got sick and was told she would not be able to see a Dr till 5pm the following day and she had been seeing this Dr for over 10 years,no wonder people are lobbing up to the hospital normal people have not got $60.00 to pay every time they go to a Dr

If you attack a company you inherently attack its staff.

Like a correspondent to today's SCD says; if we weren't so unhealthy, and full of aggro, and just plain lazy then the hospital could cope.

I can remember a story printed in this newspaper about and elderly gentleman who had breathing difficulties and died because no one checked his airway for obstruction. Causes Government, Staff, or the fact that the powers that be decided he was too old to treat???? As they say in the ad on TV a life is a life no matter how sick or old you are.

I think Bianca needs to find some new material. We are all sick of her slagging off QLD Health.

Another attention-grabbing headline from Ms Clare, but after having now closely looking at the performance report would suggest the following be more appropriate..."NGH ED does amazing work despite the challenges". In saying this I make the following observations:
. at a rough count 18000 people attended the ED in the last 6 months - a significant proportion suffering life-threatening illnesses/injuries - 24 of these presentations died in the ED - 17976 were either admitted, transferred or discharged
. NGH ED has the highest admission rate in the state - admission rates are an accepted indicator of the acuity of injuries/illnesses an ED deals with
. NGH ED consistently deals with some of the highest levels of access block in the state
......I would also suggest clarification about ramping - via personal experience & asking ambos - patients are NOT kept in the ambulance while 'ramped', they are brought into the ED where some poor nurse must decide who needs next avail space the most. 'ramped' patients are cared for by the ambos, but some may have their treatment started before they get a space ( I had xrays ordered & blood tests taken).
.

I wonder if beachy84 and douthink work for Queensland Health

Otherwise they would realise that reporting the failures of the health system helps in a battle for a hospital on the Sunshine Coast sooner rather than later.

dilbert: you couldn;t be more wrong.

All these stories do is destroy morale amongst the staff at NGH. I do a lot of business with the hospital and have yet to speak to a staff member who feels good about these stories. They all say the same thing; When will that rag stop attacking us?

The reports are not there to encourage a new hospital. They are there to sell papers primarily.