Qld: Beattie should "break bad news" to patients: doctor

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2006
Qld: Beattie should "break bad news" to patients: doctor

By Jade Bilowol and Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Aug 23 AAP - A senior doctor has challenged Queensland Premier Peter Beattie
to open more hospital beds or personally "break the bad news" to patients about their
cancelled surgery.

Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Queensland State Committee chair Chris
Perry today lashed out at the state government, saying the public hospital system was
becoming "third-world".

Dr Perry said life-saving surgery was being cancelled on a daily basis in Brisbane
because of a chronic bed shortage.

And "most shameful" was the continual cancellation of crucial operations for youngsters
at the Royal Children's Hospital, he said.

He said surgeons were "in despair" over being forced to tell critically ill adults
or the parents of a sick child that their operations had been cancelled "yet again".

"You look at the desperation and pain on their faces and see how you feel - our surgeons
have to do this every day," he said.

Dr Perry said the state government was doing "nothing at all" about the crisis.

"The answer is simple - open more beds, otherwise I invite Beattie to come down and
break the bad news to my patients," Dr Perry said.

"It is beyond belief that sick children with debilitating brain tumours are being forced
to wait for life-saving operations.

"We are not a third-world country but our hospitals system is beginning to look like
one by failing to operate on critical surgical cases every day of the week."

He said major cases were also being cancelled daily at the Royal Brisbane and Princess
Alexandria hospitals.

But when asked on the campaign trail about Dr Perry's criticism, Mr Beattie said the
government was "going to provide more beds than ever before".

"That's one of the reasons why we've announced elective surgery beds in Redcliffe,
Caboolture and QEII (hospitals) to lift that pressure," he told reporters in Toowoomba,
west of Brisbane.

"At the end of it, we are going to provide more beds than ever before - (RACS chairman)
Russell (Stitz) knows that and Russell knows that these extra beds will make a difference."

AAP jvb/cjh/nf

KEYWORD: DOCTOR RACS

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