Claims that sick children are being forced to wait days for emergency department beds at a Queensland hospital are nonsense, the state's health minister says.
The Sunday Mail newspaper reports that a budget shortfall means some kids are waiting up to three days in the emergency department of Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), some are being sent home, and those from regional areas are waiting 10 days for a bed after specialist advice that they should be admitted.
It reports that 17 of the 130 overnight beds as well as an operating theatre have have been classed as unfunded and are closed.
Health Minister Geoff Wilson said the report was nonsense.
"This needless scaremongering and continued campaign of running down our health system is damaging staff morale, he said in a statement on Sunday.
"There have been no bed closures, there has been no cut in the budget, there has been no cut in the services, the funds are there to provide the services needed for our sick children and the facilities are there for our sick children."
Children's health service district chief executive Peter Steer said the figures were incorrect.
He said out of 7700 attendances in the last three months, 30 patients waited in the emergency department for more than 24 hours, 0.3 per cent of all patients in the ward.
He said no operating theatres had been closed and last financial year 100 per cent of all RCH chemotherapy patients commenced treatment within the recommended clinical time frames.
Opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle said it was "horrifying" that 30 children were waiting more than 24 hours for an emergency bed, compared to just eight the year before.
"We are lucky enough to live in a first world country yet Labor is forcing kids, who have been sick for months, to wait weeks for a bed, it's shameful," he said in a statement.
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