ED records fall during flooding disaster

The Townsville Hospital ED has smashed its previous record for February presentations following the region’s unprecedented flooding event.

In 28 days, 6897 people visited the ED an increase of 780 on last year with the daily average number of presentations for February increasing from 218 a day in 2018 to 246 a day in 2019.

The busiest days since the floods have seen 290 and 309 presentations and overall the ED is seeing a 20 per cent increase in activity and since the floods heading into March there has been an average of 258 presentations every day.

Townsville Hospital emergency department deputy director Dr Jane Dutson said she couldn’t be prouder of her team supporting the community during the unprecedented event.

“We have to keep our doors open 24/7, it is a non-negotiable as Northern Australia’s largest tertiary hospital at a time when the community needed us most,” she said.

“Our doctors, nurses, allied health team and support staff are all members of this community as well. Many of our staff have been flood affected themselves, and have continued to come to work to care for our community despite their own hardship.

“Many of them put aside their own recovery efforts so they could care for others and I want to publicly thank all of them.

“They’ve provided this care while managing to maintain excellent standards despite an extraordinary spike in demand.”

Data for February highlights the dramatic growth in demand for emergency department care in Townsville over the past 15 years.

Presentations have now almost doubled since 2005 which saw 3753 presentations for February at 134 presentations a day with February 2015 being the first year the ED cracked 6000 presentations for the month.

Dr Dutson said Townsville Hospital’s ED nudging 7000 presentations during the shortest month of the year highlighted the growth in demand for emergency department care.

“What makes me most proud of the response is that everyone who was in most urgent need of care was seen immediately and the average wait time for the second most urgent patients was just nine minutes,” she said.

“Our multidisciplinary team of emergency clinicians, led by our emergency physicians, saw patients across all categories within an average wait time of 23 minutes. Notably this includes people with less serious conditions such as soft tissue injuries, sprains, conjunctivitis and toothache. By any national or international measure this is a performance of which we are extremely proud.

“It is also important to note that many of the other healthcare providers were significantly impacted during the floods and there was a period where many of the community’s usual providers were not available.

“The ED staff and hospital more broadly stepped into the breach to ensure our community’s access to healthcare was not compromised. This was particularly important for our most vulnerable patients and those with chronic disease.”

Townsville Hospital and Health Service Chief Executive Kieran Keyes said the performance of the emergency department during the floods was commendable.

“We have the best performing emergency department in Queensland and are consistently ranked within the top five in Australia,” he said.

“What we know over a long period is Townsville and Queensland have an excellent emergency medicine system when compared with other major developed countries and our performance targets are among the most ambitious.

“For instance, in Ontario, Canada’s biggest province, the average wait time to see a doctor in January 2019 was 1.6 hours. In New Zealand, the target to see, treat and admit or discharge patients is six hours – two hours longer than it is in Australia.”

Mr Keyes said he also wanted to acknowledge Townsville’s general practitioner and private hospital for their response to the floods.

“The reality is that so many of our healthcare partners got back to work as soon as possible to lend a hand and it hasn’t gone unnoticed or unappreciated by myself and the Board,” he said.

“On Wednesday evening we held an event for GPs at the Townsville Hospital to thank them for their response to the floods and to discuss how we can better work together for future major events.

“The Townsville Hospital is a huge cog in healthcare in Northern Australia but we aren’t the only ones and our partners play a vital and important role in caring for our community which is important to acknowledge.”

The Townsville Hospital ED is ranked third nationally among major hospitals for performance.

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