CAIRNS Base Hospital is again at bursting point, with patients being kept overnight in the emergency department because of bed shortages.

Cairns Private Hospital has also been near capacity for the past two weeks, and has been forced to turn away some patients transferred from state facilities.

Both hospitals have blamed the flu season and an ageing population for the capacity problems.

Victorian grandmother Lynette Thompson, who is visiting family in Cairns, said she was kept in the emergency department at Cairns Base for two days because staff were unable to find her a bed.

The 72-year-old said while she had nothing but praise for hospital staff, she "did not dream the doctors could not find me a bed" in the main part of the hospital.

Despite having private health cover, and the best efforts of doctors at Cairns Base, she said no bed could be found at the private hospital either.

"I was absolutely horrified there was nowhere to go," Ms Thompson said.

Ms Thompson, who is from Ballarat and spends about two months in Cairns each year visiting her three sons, said she was "appalled" by the situation.

"We would never consider living here permanently as we have such good health care in Ballarat and Melbourne."

Both Queensland Health and Ramsay Health said the reasons for the ongoing capacity problems were the ageing population and the flu season.

Ramsay Health boss Mark Page said Cairns Private had not turned away any booked patients but there had been cases in the past few weeks when it had been unable to accept some transfer patients.

"All five operating theatres are also operating at capacity," he said.

A Queensland Health spokesman said no patients requiring admission had been turned away from Cairns Base Hospital.

"However, once admitted to the emergency department, some patients may experience a delay in being transferred to a ward due to a shortage of beds in the main hospital at the time they are admitted," he said.

Cairns Base Hospital executive director of medical services Dr Kathleen Atkinson said the hospital had implemented a number of strategies to cope with the rush.

She said those strategies included more efficient discharging of patients who were ready to go home and the transfer of patients who were no longer acutely ill, but still needed to be in hospital, to a smaller, rural health facility.

Dr Atkinson also urged people to consider if a visit to their general practitioner was more appropriate for their condition than presenting at the emergency department and to undertake health precautions such as having a flu
vaccination.

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