Robertson denies drop in hospital bed numbers
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Mr Robertson disputes the findings of a report tabled by the Opposition. (ABC News: Tom MacLean)
Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson has dismissed claims of a big drop in the number of public hospital beds.
Opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle has tabled a report from last month that refers to a reduction of more than 27 per cent in the past decade.
It was written by a former Queensland Health bureaucrat who is now with the Queensland University of Technology.
Mr McArdle told State Parliament it proves there are not enough beds.
"This independent review proves once and for all that you have misled the people of Queensland," he said.
However, Mr Robertson has disputed the findings.
"The simple fact is that report after report - whether they be Queensland Health reports or Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports or Federal Government reports - show time and time again that we have got on with the job of increasing the number of acute care beds in this state," Mr Robertson said.
And Mr Robertson deflected more Opposition criticism of Townsville Hospital.
When asked how many hospital beds Townsville needed to get out of its health crisis, Mr Robertson responded: "More than you promised at the last election".
The Health Minister says the hospital is no longer on alert for over-crowding, but admitted it had been on a code yellow earlier in the day.
Mr Robertson has also revealed Queensland Health is introducing consistent terminology across the state, where different hospitals use different colours for their codes.
"It's just an early warning that goes out, it's called something else I think in Rockhampton it was called code brown, it's called something else somewhere else," he said.
"We have a lot of work to do to standardise procedures throughout Queensland hospitals."
