March 11, 2021
A teenage girl had to wait more than four weeks to get the results of a Kingaroy Hospital x-ray, according to Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington.
Mrs Frecklington said the 17-year-old attended Kingaroy Hospital on January 24 with a suspected broken foot.
However, she allegedly did not receive her results until February 25, which showed her foot was broken.
Mrs Frecklington asked a Question On Notice to Health Minister Yvette D’Ath on Wednesday:
With reference to advice from a resident of Kingaroy that following her 17-year-old daughter’s visit to Kingaroy Hospital on January 24 with a suspected broken foot, they were not advised of the x-ray results (broken foot) until February 25, some four and half weeks later:
Will the Minister advise:
(a) The normal wait time for Kingaroy Hospital patients to be advised of x-ray results
(b) Why it took four and half weeks for the Kingaroy Hospital to advise the family of the x-ray results
(c) What plans are in place to ensure this lengthy wait does not occur in the future, and
(d) Between January 1, 2021, and March 1, 2021, how many other Kingaroy Hospital patients also waited longer than the recommended timeframe to be advised of their x-ray results?
I recall getting an x-ray done of my leg way back in 1963. I was shown the x-rays and given the results within about half an hour, while I was still at the the hospital.
If our health system today can’t even match that then there’s something seriously wrong with it.
What I would give for a time machine to travel back to those days when out-patient waiting times were around half an hour and your GP made house calls.
And of course no computers back then so everything was written down and staff had to check books/cards to ensure all patients results were advised etc., and followed up where required.
58 years ago Australia was a much different place to what it is today, and attributing any decline in service levels to the automation of medicine might be overlooking that. Personally, I think any service level declines may be due more to staff cuts than anything else.
On the plus side, though – and largely thanks to modern machines – it’s a lot harder to get an X-ray overdose in 2021 than it was way back in 1963.