{"id":876034,"date":"2026-09-01T09:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876034\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:10:13","slug":"number-of-patients-stuck-in-queensland-hospital-beds-rises-to-1400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876034\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of patients stuck in Queensland hospital beds rises to 1,400"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland’s health minister has again heaped pressure on the Commonwealth to address rising numbers of patients stuck in hospital beds.<\/p>\n

There were more than 1,400 people in the state’s hospitals in April waiting to be discharged to an aged care or NDIS placement, around three-quarters of those older patients.<\/p>\n

That was up from just over 1,100 a year earlier. It’s estimated bed block costs Queensland more than $3 million daily.<\/p>\n

Health minister Tim Nicholls said funding for the cohort, labelled ‘stranded Australians’, rested with the federal government.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Tim Nicholls has raised the issue ahead of a meeting of health ministers later this week.\u00a0 (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n

“Queenslanders deserve a health system that delivers, not one that leaves people stuck in a hospital bed, stranded, stuck and waiting for support.<\/p>\n

“We’re meeting our responsibilities. It’s time for the Commonwealth to meet their responsibilities, and until they do, we’ll continue to hold them accountable.<\/p>\n

“It is about the dignity of older Australians. It is about ensuring that they receive the respect and the care that they deserve towards the latter end of their lives.”<\/p>\n

The stoush comes ahead of a meeting of health ministers on Friday, with the issue expected to be at the forefront of discussion.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Around three-quarters of ‘stranded’ hospital patients are older people. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Commonwealth said it had attempted to provide a stopgap solution to bed block earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“During hospital funding negotiations, the states told us older long-stay patients were the biggest issue when it came to the hospital system.<\/p>\n

“In response, our government proposed a ringfenced $2 billion for aged care services as part of the agreement, but states and territories rejected that offer, instead choosing to direct that funding into their hospital systems.”<\/p>\n

Urgent call for funding uplift<\/p>\n

Australian Medical Association Queensland president, associate professor Erica Gannon, said bed block had a massive ripple effect across the health system and called on the Commonwealth to do more.<\/p>\n

“There is a flow-on effect to those patients who are needing to come in through frontline services in our emergency departments.<\/p>\n

“That will impact on ramping, and the care needs of ongoing ED patients.”<\/p>\n

She added there was a health impact for those people stuck in hospitals.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

AMA Queensland president Erica Gannon says long-term hospital exposure can be distressing for patients. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

“It is certainly distressing for those patients who are in hospital for a prolonged period of time.<\/p>\n

“It can be a noisy environment and distressing for those dementia patients, not to mention their exposure to hospital-acquired infections.”<\/p>\n

‘Dismal’ figures<\/p>\n

Mr Nicholls claimed Queensland was “ground zero” for stranded Australians.<\/p>\n

In one case, he said a patient had been in hospital awaiting discharge for more than 1,000 days, and another 15 people were stranded for more than 700 days.<\/p>\n

Of particular concern was a net increase of just 26 residential aged care beds to the system in the year to June 2025 in Queensland.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Just 26 residential aged care beds were added to the system in Queensland last financial year. (ABC News: Patrick Stone)<\/p>\n

“This is a dismal amount. Only a 0.06 per cent actual increase in the number of beds available in Queensland,” Mr Nicholls stated.<\/p>\n

Shadow Attorney-General Meaghan Scanlon said while she would encourage the Commonwealth to continue investing in aged care, it should be in partnership with the state government.<\/p>\n

“They’ve delayed hospitals all across the state. They need to take responsibility as well.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, they’re prioritising the construction of a stadium over hospitals.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland’s health minister has again heaped pressure on the Commonwealth to address rising numbers of patients stuck in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[27121,45470,64,63,16489,347813,2494,137,500,57933,5793,94,701,445669,992],"class_list":["post-876034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-aged-care","tag-ama","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-commonwealth","tag-erica-gannon","tag-funding","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital-beds","tag-ndis","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-stranded-australians","tag-tim-nicholls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}