News

Noosa Hospital Emergency Department

Feb 20, 2012

There has been coverage about the performance of Noosa Hospital Emergency Department in the local media recently.

The community should be assured that Noosa Hospital operates a safe, professional and efficient Emergency Department (ED) which is outperforming given constraints of budget and space. We continue to play a crucial role in the provision of public healthcare services to the Sunshine Coast and have managed the enormous growth in presentations.

Our ED has over recent years attended to thousands more patients than we are funded for by Queensland Health. We have experienced a particular increase in the most serious Category 1 and 2 patients who are more likely to arrive via ambulance.

Noosa Hospital uses the same clinical tool as other Queensland Health Emergency Departments to determine what the safe level of patients is at any given time. This is a clinical decision and is not taken lightly. We understand that other Queensland Health Emergency Departments similarly need to go onto Extreme and Over capacity when faced with similar challenges.

On the occasions where the Noosa Hospital ED is forced to go on to "over" or "extreme" capacity it is done so in the best interests of patient safety. For example it may be that a patient currently in the department is being resuscitated meaning it would be unsafe for additional critically ill patients to be brought to the department at that time.

If anyone from the community would like to discuss this with me please contact me at the hospital on 5455 9203.

Oliver Steele
CEO Noosa Hospital