Low-acuity public patients from a Gold Coast hospital are being treated at a nearby hotel as part of a program to help free up emergency beds, but many say such initiatives only offer short-term solutions.
Hospital patients are being put up in a Gold Coast hotel, as part of a program trying to free up emergency beds in the public health system.
, before the hotel-based hospital service was moved closer to the GCUH at the Mantra Hotel in Southport in June 2024.Mr Brittain, whose condition is not life-threatening but requires constant monitoring, said the care he received was "pretty much the same" at the hospital and hotel, but he gives the latter a thumbs up.)
To differentiate from guests at the hotel, patients and visitors use a separate entrance and patients are prohibited from using hotel facilities such as the gym.Since opening last year, more than 800 patients have used the service, which equates to about 7,800 hospital bed days saved, according to the GCHHS.
The Australian Medical Association of Queensland said the hotel-based care was a short-term but reasonable solution for low-risk patients, given an in-hospital bed can cost taxpayers up to $2,000 a day. "This is a sign for our state and federal governments to ensure that our hospital system is adequately funded and, at the same time, we need to have an adequately funded primary care sector, such as general practice to keep people well and out of hospital."The Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union acknowledged the state's public health system was "under extreme pressure" but said the Gold Coast initiative should remain temporary.
In the meantime, the GCUH director of emergency medicine, David Green, said demand at the city's main hospital was unprecedented."It's very, very difficult when you've got patients sitting in beds in the emergency department and you're trying to offload ambulances and you've got no bed space," Dr Green said.
Gold Coast University Hospital Hospital Beds In Hotels Public Patients Mantra Hotel Southport Kng Healthcare Ama Qld Nurses And Midwives Union Coomera Hospital
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