June 7, 2023
Toowoomba Hospital has responded to Opposition claims this week of up to seven-hour “ramping” times, with some statistics of its own.
They show the number of patients being treated in the Emergency Department has increased exponentially, and the median wait time across all category patients was just 19 minutes.
The latest quarterly data shows more than 16,000 patients attended the Emergency Department, up almost 12 per cent compared with the same period in 2022.
Darling Downs Health Chief Executive Annette Scott PSM said an $11 million Emergency Department expansion, opened late last year, had enabled Toowoomba Hospital to manage the demand for emergency services while a new Toowoomba Hospital was being built.
“We know there is a growing demand for our services at the current Toowoomba Hospital CBD site, with record numbers of ED presentations,” Ms Scott said.
“As demonstrated by this performance data, we are managing to see more people through our ED whilst also improving our waiting times.”
Additionally, the ED’s Patient Off Stretcher Time also significantly improved with 80 per cent of patients being transferred off an ambulance stretcher within 30 minutes; up 13 per cent compared with the March 2022 quarter.
The Emergency Department expansion was funded by the State Government as part of the COVID Recovery Program.
Toowoomba Hospital Executive Director Shirley-Anne Gardiner said the expansion had included additional triage and treatment spaces, “enabling more patients to access our services and creating a modern working environment for our staff”.
A $1.3 billion new Toowoomba Hospital is currently being built at the Baillie Henderson campus and is expected to open in the second half of 2027.
- Related article: Ramping Times ‘Unacceptable‘
