HEALTH WOES IN TROPICAL AUSTRALIA

Cairns is the centre of one of Australia's major resort areas. There is a constant stream of planes landing with loads of tourists at Cairns International airport. The planes seem to roar in every ten minutes or so during the day. So you would think that health services there would be at a standard to create a good impression of Australia. Sadly, it is not so. And note that Cairns Base Hospital serves an area approximately the size of England -- in addition to treating tourist mishaps. Four current articles below

Paramedics dangerously overworked in Cairns

Twenty-four hour shifts and bullying are among a rash of new complaints outlined by stressed ambulance officers. Following a series of exclusive reports by The Cairns Post, more Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics yesterday came forward to detail the staffing shortfalls and other problems plaguing the service across the Far North.

They said overworked staff were sometimes too tired to even fill in their time-sheets properly at the end of shifts that extended to 24-hours in smaller centres with an overnight on-call component. "Everyone's being flogged to death but what choice do you have when there aren't enough staff and you've got a moral obligation to the community?" one paramedic said. Others told of a culture of bullying when complaints were made to management.

The paramedics who rang The Cairns Post yesterday said they felt compelled to speak out before a patient's life was "put on the line". Their complaints come after revelations this week that a student paramedic was left in charge of the entire Cardwell region for seven hours on Monday. The nearest qualified paramedic was more than 40km away in Tully.

Their concerns also follow the death last month of a Cairns World War II Digger who waited more than two hours for an ambulance to come from Kuranda the day he died. One paramedic described that situation as a "regular problem", saying he knew of a recent case where a Code 1 job outside the Cairns casino needed to be responded to by Kuranda and another less serious case where Gordonvale's unit had to be sent to Yorkeys Knob.

Queensland Ambulance Service's new Far Northern assistant commissioner Peter Cahill denied there was a shortage of ambulance officers and said he had not been briefed on any bullying issues. Mr Cahill said he would look into incidents if he had firm evidence. But he said the Far North region had a good record for response rates, with 50 per cent of Cairns and coastal region cases being responded to in 7.4 minutes, which was under the state average. He conceded 24-hour shifts were a long-standing practice for smaller stations but said staff were only on-call overnight for emergencies.

Opposition spokesman Ted Malone called on Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts to "stop covering up staff shortages".

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Cairns paramedics told to put names to complaints

Given the well-known bullying of paramedics by management, this is just stonewalling

The Queensland Ambulance Service will only investigate allegations by paramedics that they are being overworked and bullied by superiors if staff are willing to come forward. The bosses say they will also only investigate alleged unsafe work practices where students were put into positions alone without trained paramedics to back them up if officers will put their names to the complaints.

The response comes after revelations that a student paramedic was left in charge of the Cardwell region for several hours earlier this week. The Weekend Post has since been inundated with calls from paramedics, students and people in senior QAS roles, voicing concerns over practices they believe are "putting lives at risk". But all fear being named, saying they will be sacked or moved on.

"If we are given instances where people felt intimidated or they believe they are going to be sacked I would like to know about them," QAS deputy commissioner Russell Bowles said. "Apart from gross misconduct I have never seen anyone sacked.'' But one highly placed person in the service said there were often directives from the State Government banning staff from speaking out. QAS assistant commissioner Peter Cahill said he would investigate any incident raised through formal channels

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Cairns ambulance bosses say sorry for wrongful and fatal delay

Ambulance bosses admit a series of blunders may have contributed to the death of World War II digger Bob Mutton and have apologised to his family. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Changi prison camp survivor's death found a series of "operational deficiencies", including an unacceptable response time. Staff involved will be officially counselled.

The inquiry was launched after an exclusive report in The Cairns Post revealed Mr Mutton waited more than two hours for an ambulance. Releasing the outcome of the investigation yesterday, Queensland Ambulance Service deputy commissioner Russell Bowles told The Weekend Post: "It is very unfortunate and I am sorry that it happened and my heartfelt condolences go out to Mr Mutton's family."

On the day Mr Mutton died in late July, it took almost an hour for the first ambulance to be dispatched to his Cairns home after his doctor called to report the 88-year-old was struggling for breath. That ambulance was diverted four minutes into the job. After another 71 minutes, an ambulance arrived from Kuranda before taking him to Cairns Base Hospital where he later died. At the time, ambulance bosses blamed delays in reaching the war veteran on the number of ambulances delivering patients to Cairns Base Hospital. But the investigation found crews were in fact available to respond to Mr Mutton.

The investigation found the initial call was classified correctly but it was not actioned correctly. It also found there was an unacceptable initial response time and diversion, and that standard procedures were not followed when responding to calls made by Mr Mutton's doctor. "Standard operating procedure required a response to this case within 20 minutes," Mr Bowles said. "This did not occur as it took paramedics two hours and five minutes to respond.''

Mr Bowles added: "While some crews were waiting to admit patients at CBH, there were other resources available that should have been redirected. "Mr Mutton's case was urgent enough to require the attendance of one of those crews."

Mr Bowles said while some of the staff involved had been debriefed on the incident, others would soon be and they would be "officially counselled regarding this matter''. "We are human. We do 60,000 cases a year and now what we have to do as these cases come up is - and we don't always get it as right as we want - is not to have a witch-hunt," he said. Mr Bowles said as a result of the incident he had also directed the assistant commissioner Peter Cahill to reiterate to all staff the importance of following QAS policy and procedures. He said the QAS was trying to contact Mr Mutton's family to take them step-by-step through what happened on that fateful day.

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Two-day emergency department stay in Cairns public hospital

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 that could not be planned for??] 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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