THE Redland Hospital maternity ward will receive a shake-up ahead of Christmas, with plans to use four of its beds for general medical and surgery to ease pressure on the emergency department.
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It comes as a Redland Hospital insider makes claims of a bullying and blame culture, nurses being put under great pressure and executives using COVID as an excuse to cover for poor bed management.
The staffer said the hospital had about 75 beds for adult patients and was constantly operating over capacity, while paramedics were being told to take patients to other hospitals because of ramping issues.
Redland Hospital executive director Anne Coccetti said using maternity beds for general medical and surgery would improve patient flow and reduce pressure on the emergency department.
Maternity services would not be slashed as a result of the change, as the four beds were found to have been under-utilised.
"Redland Hospital will be recruiting more clinicians to staff these beds, which will increase services for the ... community," Ms Coccetti said.
The staffer said the plan, which is set to take effect in December, would push patients further away from staff.
They complained the hospital was understaffed and underfunded, and said employee concerns were going unheard.
"We are going to have ambulances ramping at the door, ED full, wards full, while sick leave is through the roof because everyone is hacked off at working," the staffer said.
"Their seems to be a bullying and a blame culture appearing again that had disappeared, and everyone is having to work harder.
"They're also putting the nurses and the nurse midwives under an awful lot of pressure just to free up a few extra beds."
Issues have surfaced days after locals complained of long wait times at the hospital during an LNP-hosted health forum.
Oodgeroo MP Mark Robinson said it was disappointing that it took insiders to reveal the health system's shortcomings.
"The long-term Palaszczuk Government has failed to provide an ICU during the coronavirus pandemic, failed to provide more beds, and now will use maternity beds for other purposes besides Redlands mums bringing their babies into the world," he said.
Ms Coccetti said using the four maternity beds would allow the hospital to deliver more surgeries for patients that needed to stay overnight and help reduce emergency wait times.
Queensland Health declined to comment about how many staff were on leave at Redland Hospital, or the hospital's adult bed capacity.
The staffer said there had been many births at the maternity ward recently and questioned what would happen if a woman arrived in labour but there were no beds available.
"If you look at how many babies have been born at Redland Hospital since COVID, their business has increased massively," the staffer said.
"When every bed in the hospital is full of adult patients, ED has to start filling up and once that's full they can't function.
"The ambulances start to ramp out the front, because they have nowhere to unload into ED, and ED has nowhere to send patients to on the wards.
"Then they start using other areas. But what happens if a pregnant woman comes in that needs a bed?"
Queensland Health said there would be ample capacity for predicted birthing rates at the hospital.
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