ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins, who will visit the hospital with AMA Queensland representatives, said the two bodies will be seeking the intervention of the Queensland Health Minister if the meetings do not result in satisfactory solutions. Dr Judkins said the meetings and site visit were necessary because hospital management’s response to concerns repeatedly raised by Emergency Department (ED) staff over capacity and access block issues has so far been a case of ‘too little, too late’. “For some time now we have been raising concerns that patient and staff safety at Cairns Hospital is being seriously compromised due to the failure to manage demand,” said Dr Judkins. “We’ve raised concerns that Code Yellow – which the health service is placed under during disaster situations when it struggles to meet public demand for health services – has become a normalised way for the Cairns Hospital to operate. “When a […]