Queensland Health counts chairs as beds

Queensland Health counts chairs as beds
Article from: The Sunday Mail (Qld)

Darrell Giles

August 31, 2008 12:00am

THE State Government has been accused of fudging hospital bed figures in the troubled health system by including chairs and other furniture.

The 2008-09 State Budget, released in June, said there were 10,234 beds in Queensland public hospitals.

But what it didn't reveal is that almost 14 per cent of those beds are not beds at all.

Figures obtained by the State Opposition show that 1370 so-called beds included chairs, trolleys, cots, stretchers and lounge suites.

Sources said some patients admitted to hospital never got to lie in a bed – instead they spent hours sitting in a chair, sometimes being treated there.

Liberal National Party Deputy Leader Mark McArdle slammed the Government for playing with the figures, and claimed the number of proper beds had been cut.

The Opposition health spokesman said the fine print in Queensland Health Budget documents revealed the picture on alternative beds.

"This Government has been caught out deliberately fudging the true number of public hospital beds by changing the definition of 'bed'," Mr McArdle said.

In the Budget papers, in Queensland Health's service delivery statement, it records a new measure of the "number of available bed and available bed alternatives for public acute hospitals".

In notes, it says the "Queensland Health Data Dictionary defines an 'available bed' as a bed which is immediately available to be used by an admitted patient if required and an 'available bed alternative' as an item of furniture, for example, trolley and cot, non-recognised beds occupied or not, which is immediately available for use by admitted patients".

Further documents revealed that "available bed alternatives" included a "number of items of furniture (eg trolleys, chairs, cots, non-recognised beds, etc)".

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the Beattie-Bligh Government had consistently recorded alternative beds in its figures and never hid them from the public.

Mr Robertson said there were 1370 available bed alternatives as of June 30 and of those, 1246 were renal dialysis and chemotherapy chairs.

Others included day surgery chairs, day therapy chairs, discharge lounge/transit lounge chairs, emergency department chairs, trolleys and stretchers, and non-neonatal cots.

He disagreed that it was misleading the public to identify these as beds. "I don't think the thousands of people coming into our major hospitals every day for renal dialysis or chemotherapy would agree with that," Mr Robertson said.

He said the figures were kept that way to remain consistent with all hospitals and other states.

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