The Queensland Government has released the Metropolitan Emergency Department Access Initiative report, accepting all fifteen recommendations to improve the flow of patients through the Emergency Departments of Queensland hospitals.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said that when the new arrangements are implemented, hospital bypass will be a thing of the past.


Ambulance ramping occurs when there are no immediately available beds or treatment areas in the Emergency Department to transfer patients arriving by an arriving ambulance. It leads to what is commonly known as bypass, where ambulances are re-directed to other Emergency Departments.

“The report makes it clear that simply going on bypass, which is effectively diverting a patient to another facility, is an unacceptable mechanism for managing demand on Emergency Departments,” the Minister said.

“Addressing ambulance ramping and hospital bypass requires a ‘whole of hospital’ approach to improving the flow of patients through the entire facility, not just the Emergency Department. These recommendations will make those changes happen.

The report’s recommendations will be implemented by Queensland Health, and Minister Springborg indicated he had written to the Chair of each Hospital and Health Board to confirm the Government’s commitment to addressing the issues raised by the report.

The report was commissioned by Queensland Health and prepared by Dr David Rosengren, the Director of Emergency Medicine at Greenslopes Private Hospital and a Senior Staff Specialist Emergency Physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

The Queensland Ambulance Service, numerous other clinicians with emergency medicine expertise, paramedics, unions and agency representatives – at both senior executive and operational levels – also had input into the report.

“This Government recognises that access to the Emergency Departments of Queensland’s hospitals is a key indicator of how the health system is performing,” the Minister said.

“By adopting a whole-of-hospital approach as recommended by the report, we will be improving the efficiency of our facilities and delivering faster, more appropriate care to the patients of Queensland.

A copy of the report is available on Queensland Health’s website at www.health.qld.gov.au under What’s New.