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  • 17 hours ago
Two years after the Liberal national party swept to power in Queensland frontline doctors and paramedics say chronic ambulance ramping has barely improved in the state. It comes as an investigation begins into the death of a Brisbane man found deceased at home last weekend hours after calling an ambulance. Fixing the health system was a key pledge of the Crisafulli government, but there are doubts it can meet its own targets.

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00:03Ambulances frozen at Cairns Hospital last week, unable to hand over patients because
00:09there are no free beds or staff.
00:11They're stuck at hospitals, unable to respond to those people in need in the community.
00:15A paramedic who we aren't naming, lifting the veil on ramping in Logan.
00:20Telling ABC News, I experience it every day whilst at work.
00:25There's people out there who genuinely need an ambulance, critically, and they're not
00:30receiving that care.
00:32Ramping is entirely a symptom of a hospital system that's not working well.
00:38Behind hospital walls, staff are strained.
00:42Queensland emergency departments are under sustained pressure on a daily basis.
00:46The main thing that we need going forward from the state is increasing our acute hospital
00:50bed capacity.
00:51In campaign mode, David Crisofulli made three core health commitments.
00:56Promising to reduce ambulance ramping below 30 per cent by the end of this term.
01:02That means fewer than 30 per cent of patients waiting longer than half an hour to be transferred
01:08off a stretcher.
01:09In August, the statewide average was 42 per cent, a modest improvement compared with 2024
01:16under Labor when it was 44 per cent.
01:20It's much higher than we'd like.
01:22There's more work to be done, but the trend is showing that we are having an impact.
01:25So we keep working at it.
01:26And if not, will he resign?
01:29Well, let's see how we go first.
01:31Stabilising the elective surgery waiting list was another vow.
01:35I'm giving you an ironclad guarantee that it is going to improve year on year.
01:40The waiting list was lower in August, but more than 5,000 patients waited longer than
01:47recommended for their operation.
01:49Another pledge was sharing ED data in real time, but how meaningful is it?
01:54It's useless data.
01:56It doesn't reflect what's happening.
01:58It's not just Queensland.
02:00Health systems around the world are under pressure.
02:03Battling workforce shortages, chronic disease, ageing populations and inflation.
02:08But from opposition, the LNP set itself unequivocal targets.
02:14Meeting them in government is proving a challenge.
02:17Take pretensions
02:19Easier
02:19One
02:19Day
02:19John

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