Unending public hospital woes in Queensland

Having a heart attack? You too have to wait!



This the anguished face of Queensland's health system. A woman waits with her elderly dad in an ambulance in a car park because he can't be admitted to the overflowing emergency department. At least five other patients wait in other ambulances. A year after the health inquiry and just a day after Premier Peter Beattie denied there was a crisis in the health system, Cairns Base Hospital yesterday was a scene of agony. As politicians from all sides of politics pledge to fix the problems in health, 70-year-old Ken Freckelton waited nearly two hours to be admitted to the hospital suffering chest pains.

His worried daughter Emma Freckelton-Bowden watched helplessly as paramedics were told there were no spare beds. After finally being admitted he was returned to the ambulance because there were no spare doctors. "Nobody would come and talk to us to tell us what was happening. They were talking to the paramedics telling them there were no beds," Ms Freckelton-Bowden said.

The gridlock was revealed as Coalition deputy leader Bruce Flegg stood outside the hospital unveiling a plan to expand cardiac services. Dr Flegg said the situation was a "disgrace" and left just after his press conference as media crews spoke to distraught relatives.

Cairns Health Service District Acting Manager Brett Grosser blamed the situation on an influx of patients needing beds with cardiac-monitoring equipment. "(That) meant some patients had to wait in the ambulances until these monitored beds became available," Mr Grosser said. He said this week had been particularly busy for the hospital's Emergency Department (ED). "We can't predict when ambulances will need to wait," he said. A spokesman for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, which includes ambulance officers, said backlogs at the hospital potentially led to delays in responding to other cases.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Zelle Hodge said the hospital's emergency department was not big enough and had too few beds to cope with the demand. She said the problem of bed numbers in Queensland hospitals was compounded in the mid-1990s under the then Goss Government when Mr Beattie was Health Minister. Dr Hodge said instead of increasing bed numbers or maintaining them, they were cut. "The health economists at the time were saying: 'You're not going to need as many hospital beds because basically people are going to be in for a shorter stay'," she said. "But the doctors were saying: 'People are getting older, the population is getting bigger. Even though people are in for a shorter time, you're still going to need those bed numbers'." Dr Hodge said she was at a meeting last year when the Premier admitted he had thought those doctors were "empire building" and realised now he was wrong not to trust them

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How sad: Australian football umpires now need bodyguards



A teenage Victorian footballer has been banned for seven years for striking an umpire. The under-18 player copped the career-ending suspension after going "troppo" in an Essendon District Football League semi-final on Sunday. The teen played for Doutta Stars in their 88-60 win over Strathmore.

Strathmore secretary Ross Higgins said he had never seen anything like it. "He lost his cool. He grabbed at the umpire. The player grabbed the umpire," he said. Mr Higgins said the incident happened when a second free kick was awarded to Strathmore near goal after it had converted the first. "The umpire had paid a couple of free kicks, one that had resulted in a goal and another that was going to result in a goal, and the kid just went troppo," he said.

According to the tribunal website, R. Gordon was found guilty of abuse, assaulting and striking the umpire and was banned for seven years. Neither the Doutta Stars nor the EDFL returned calls to the Herald Sun last night. But local umpires backed the seven-year ban. "Hopefully this sends the message to players that it's not acceptable," said EDFL Umpires Association president David Sullivan. "I think the tribunal has taken a good stance. "From our point of view, we think it's a good decision," he said. "We hate to see things like that happen. Unfortunately it does happen from time to time, but touch wood it doesn't happen again." Mr Sullivan said the umpire involved in the incident would continue to officiate.

Football Victoria manager of development and planning Mick Daniher said suburban leagues found it hard to attract umpires, and they must be protected at all costs. "That's a very serious offence, and I think every football league facing such a severe incident like that would want to be taking strong action against that," he said. "I don't think it's an unreasonable penalty for striking an umpire. "The whole industry of Australian football is wanting to recruit and retain umpires, and one of the negatives is the way umpires are treated and the abuse they receive. So we want to take a strong stance against any abuse of umpires."

The incident follows one in which Heatherton Cricket Club coach and vice-captain Daryl Rose, 33, was banned this year for 10 years after threatening to kill an umpire. Last year a junior football coach was banned for three years for abusing an umpire.

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Leftist governments plan to stop cow farts!



The success of the Labor states' proposed carbon emissions trading scheme may hinge on stopping cows breaking wind. A joint discussion paper released by the states says agricultural emissions must be cut by 60 per cent and part of the solution is reducing flatulence in cows. Livestock produces more than 60 million tonnes of methane gas annually - the equivalent of 10 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. The discussion paper was released this month to support the case for a state-based carbon emissions trading scheme.

Prime Minister John Howard has attacked the idea and Premier Peter Beattie, although supportive, is concerned about the impact of the proposed scheme on Queensland's coal industry. The paper says agricultural emissions of methane and nitrous oxide are a particular concern. "In order to achieve around a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by the middle of this century, agricultural emissions would need to be addressed at some point," it said. "Achieving emissions reductions in agriculture will require a significant research and development effort."

Reducing flatulence in cows is identified as one of the most promising research areas. In particular, it points to "preliminary rumen ecology" research being undertaken in Queensland. Scientists at the Department of Primary Industries are working on three projects. These include investigating whether bacteria found in the gut of kangaroos - which emit very little methane - could be used to reduce emissions from cattle and sheep.

Principal scientist Athol Klieve yesterday said three different types of bacteria had been isolated. "We have been looking at them in a fermentation apparatus . . . to see how well they can colonise, and see if they can reduce methane," he said. "There are promising indications that if we can work out a bit better the requirements they need to be able to persist in the rumen, they will be able to reduce methane emissions." Dr Klieve said the other two projects involved putting coconut oil and cotton seed in cattle feed. "It is known a lot of these liquid-based feed materials do reduce methane emissions," he said.

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Money to move plan

A federal government plan to offer unemployed people a $5,000 relocation incentive is a product of economic prosperity, Prime Minister John Howard says. Mr Howard said the government's plan to offer the incentive for the unemployed to move to areas which had chronic skills shortages was commonsense. "Everywhere I go in the country, when I talk to employers, all they are talking about is getting enough workers," Mr Howard told reporters in Adelaide. "This is the product of prosperity, it's not the despair of depression - in a sense it's an interesting challenge to have."

Mr Howard said the incentives would be offered in a pilot program. "There are still some pockets of high unemployment in Australia and the incentives would be for people to go to areas where there are a shortage of workers," he said. "It won't be compulsory but I do think people who are genuinely looking for work but can't get it, particularly those who don't have such strong family ties, they should consider taking up these incentives. "The principle is a very simple one: that in any economy that is booming, and our economy is booming at the present time ... there will be a shortage of labour in the areas of intense economic activity, there will still be some pockets of unemployment. "And if we can persuade with incentives and assistance some hundreds of people to go from areas of high unemployment to areas of demand ... the principle makes a great deal of sense."

Mr Howard denied the move was a bandaid solution to Australia's shortage of skilled workers. "I don't think it's a bandaid solution when you have 4.8 per cent unemployment." he said. "The starting point of all of this is we have the lowest unemployment in 30 years. "And wherever you have a demand for more workers, you are going to have skills shortages - by definition you never have all the skilled tradesmen you need in times of peak economic activity because that is the nature of how an economy works."

Labor leader Kim Beazley welcomed the move. "Any step in that direction is a welcome step but they have to do so much more," Mr Beazley told reporters in Adelaide. "We really have to do something serious about skills at the national level in this country. "The government goes around with little bits and pieces of action here and there, when what we need is a wholesale set of plans to make us a more skilled people."

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