ALMOST 80 beds are needed immediately to reduce occupancy rates at Cairns Base Hospital to a safe level, the state's peak medical body says.
The Australian Medical Association of Queensland yesterday launched the Your Hospital’s Health website as part of its campaign to improve the state’s health system.
The website shows bed occupancy rates, elective surgery lists and emergency department waiting times at 27 Queensland public hospitals.
The association flagged Cairns as one of five Queensland hospitals listed with bed occupancy above 100 per cent.
AMA Queensland president Mason Stevenson said hospitals with occupancy rates greater than 85 per cent over a 12-month period put patients at risk of higher mortality and disability rates.
"It has been singled out by The (Australasian) College for Emergency Medicine as the single most preventable cause of adverse patient events in our hospitals," Dr Stevenson said.
"We have a full sign out the front of Cairns Base Hospital. It’s at full capacity almost all of the time. It limits the availability of beds for elective surgical patients. We need to act to correct this scenario."
Dr Stevenson said 79 beds were immediately needed to reduce Cairns hospital’s capacity to 85 per cent.
He said the median waiting time of 6.37 hours to be admitted to Cairns hospital’s emergency department was unacceptable and higher than the state average of 6.06 hours. Of the 468 people on "long waits" for elective surgery, 396 patients were classified as semi-urgent and surgery should be performed within three months, he said.
Dr Stevenson said the State Government needed to provide better resources to overstretched hospitals.
Cairns Base Hospital is undergoing a $446.3 million redevelopment to provide an additional 168 beds by the end of 2014.
Another 50 beds will be available in the emergency department at the end of the year.
But Dr Stevenson said the hospital would be under extreme duress until the redevelopment was completed.
Cairns Base Hospital declined to comment on the Your Hospital’s Health website.
Health Minister Paul Lucas said in a statement the website duplicated the state’s reporting mechanisms and criticised it for excluding the private sector.
