{"id":332938,"date":"2023-06-07T14:46:23","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T04:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=332938"},"modified":"2023-06-07T18:11:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T08:11:57","slug":"demand-prompts-11m-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/06\/07\/demand-prompts-11m-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"Demand Prompts $11m Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Emergency Department at Toowoomba Hospital received an $11 million upgrade late last year (Photo: DDH)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 7, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toowoomba Hospital has responded to Opposition claims this week of up to seven-hour “ramping” times, with some statistics of its own.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there is a growing demand for our services at the current Toowoomba Hospital CBD site, with record numbers of ED presentations,\u201d Ms Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs demonstrated by this performance data, we are managing to see more people through our ED whilst also improving our waiting times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the ED\u2019s 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Emergency Department expansion was funded by the State Government as part of the COVID Recovery Program.<\/p>\n

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\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n