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Sunshine Coast health staff, services celebrated for five-year achievements
A five-year snapshot of Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service highlights the achievements of hospitals and staff in managing significant increases in emergency department presentations and surgeries.
Queensland Health Director General Dr John Wakefield said several factors, including population growth, aging population, falling private health insurance rates, and more recently, the global pandemic, were responsible for the high demand on health services.
“COVID-19 has had a severe impact on our hospitals in the past 18 months,” Dr Wakefield said.
“Whilst we have been successful in minimising community transmission of COVID-19, it was necessary to divert significant staffing into our public health response, testing, tracking and tracing, hotel quarantine, and mass vaccination”.
Two people in Western Australia have suffered severe allergic reactions soon after receiving the COVID-19 vaccination, the state s Chief Health Officer has revealed in the wake of four recent similar events in Queensland.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration, which is responsible for approving vaccines in Australia, is closely reviewing anaphylaxis reports, but stresses it is a very rare side effect that may occur with any vaccine .
While all four Queensland reactions came after receiving shots from a single batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine, WA Chief Health Officer Dr Andrew Robertson said one case in his state involved that vaccine and the other followed the injection of the Pfizer jab.
Queensland s hospital budget sheets are bleeding red, with the state s health services racking up an $82 million operating loss last year as they spent more than they had on patient care. But the state s health boss says it s the fault of the COVID pandemic for biting $70 million out of bottom lines. In an ongoing decline in financial sustainability , 11 of the state s 16 Hospital and Health Services (HHS) recorded losses in 2019-20, despite just one planning for a loss, a probe by the Auditor-General found. Brendan Worrell found the cost of delivering health services was now more than the funding received from governments.