8 November, 2022
Toowoomba Hospital wait times lead state
Figures from the Queensland Government from June 2022 show a patient waited nearly 12 hours and 53 minutes after presenting to Toowoomba Hospital, the longest time anywhere in the state.
The second longest wait was 10 hours and 34 minutes, followed by 10 hours and 32 minutes, 9 hours and 58 minutes and 8 hours and 49 minutes.
The top four were all higher than any other hospital in Queensland, with the next highest being at Mackay.
These times are before the patient is taken to the emergency department or another ward for treatment.
Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates said nobody should have to wait up to 13 hours before their first interaction with a nurse.
“The embattled Health Minister can’t be trusted to fix the health system,” Ms Bates said.
“Under Yvette D’Ath, ambulance ramping is the worst in the nation, bed block is back, ambulance bypass has returned, multiple failures at the state-run DNA laboratory, surgery malpractice at Caboolture and Mackay hospitals, emergency departments are packed, elective surgery waitlists have soared, maternity services closed in Gladstone and staff morale is at an all-time low.”
While the wait times were the longest in June for the Toowoomba Hospital, the longest wait times in April and May were still significant, clocking in at 9 hours and 23 minutes and 8 hours and 40 minutes respectively.
Minister D’Ath said anyone who presents to a Queensland hospital will be seen - no one will ever be turned away.
“However, the sickest, most critically ill people will be seen and treated first,” she said.
From 29 September 2021 to 25 May 2022, hospitals across the Darling Downs region lost 125 beds including six from at Toowoomba Hospital and 19 at Warwick Hospital.
