QH is crediting five multimillion-dollar glorified UCCs with a drop in non-urgent ED presentations. We call bullpucky.
A year-long drop in non-urgent presentations to emergency departments is being credited by Queensland Health to five satellite hospitals, two of which didn’t open until November and December 2023.
In a press release over the weekend, Queensland Health said “non-urgent emergency department presentations have plummeted by more than 13% after the opening of satellite hospitals”.
In fact, across the five hospitals serviced by the five satellite hospitals, the number of non-urgent (category 4 and 5) ED presentations in the December 2023 quarter did indeed drop 13.9% compared with the December 2022 quarter (23,788 in 2023; 27,604 in 2022).
But the five satellite hospitals opened on 3 August 2023 (Caboolture), 30 August (Ripley), 28 August (Redlands), 15 November (Tugun) and 1 December (Kallangur), which suggests at best their influence has been minor, if any, so far.
At Caboolture Hospital in the September 2023 quarter, which includes the opening of the satellite hospital, there were 3104 category 4 and 5 ED presentations. In the December quarter that number actually increased by 1.2% — up to 3142.
At Prince Charles Hospital in the September 2023 quarter, there were 9628 category 4 and 5 presentations. In the December quarter, which included the opening of the Kallangur satellite hospital, there were 9553 – a barely perceptible 0.8% decrease.
At Robina Hospital in the September 2023 quarter, there were 4063 category 4 and 5 presentations. In the December quarter, which included the opening of the Tugun satellite hospital on 15 November, there were 3944 – a fall of 2.9%.
At Redlands Hospital in the September 2023 quarter, which included the opening of the Redlands satellite hospital on 28 August, there were 3834 category 4 and 5 presentations. In the December quarter, there were 3660 – a fall of 4.5%.
At Ipswich Hospital in the September 2023 quarter, which includes the 30 August opening of the Ripley satellite hospital, there were 4093 category 4 and 5 presentations. In the December quarter there were 3489 – a fall of 14.8%.
In the December quarters comparison (2022 v 2023), Ipswich Hospital topped the improvements with a 26% decrease, with Caboolture (15%), Redlands (14.4%), Robina (11.8%) and Prince Charles (8.5%).
Those are good decreases, and at best you could say the Ripley satellite hospital may be starting to have an effect, but to credit the 13.9% December on December improvement to the satellite hospitals is disingenuous at best.
It’s the first time satellite hospitals have been included on the Queensland Health Hospitals Performance website.
Interestingly, although the satellite hospitals are designed for non-urgent presentations, all five have recorded significant numbers of category 1, 2 and 3 presentations as well. All five moved 100% of their category 1 patients on – presumably to their major hospital’s EDs – within four hours.
Concerningly, it took Kallangur an average of 130 minutes to do so, and it took Tugun 112 minutes.
The Eight Mile Plains and Bribie Island satellite hospitals are set to open in mid-2024.