‘Get vaccinated': Hospitals under pressure as elective surgeries remain on hold

Australia Broadcast Center

17-07-2025

Elective surgeries remain on hold at several major Queensland hospitals, with state leaders calling the influx of flu and COVID-19 patients taking up valuable beds "overwhelming" and "startling".
The State Government announced on Wednesday that non-urgent surgeries were postponed for two days at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Prince Charles Hospital, Redcliffe Hospital, and Caboolture Hospital.
The delay affects around 185 patients.
While urgent category one procedures will go ahead, category two and three surgeries, like knee or hip surgeries, have been paused to free up resources.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls said elective surgeries were expected to resume Monday, depending on whether case numbers remained steady.
"When our beds get full, that restricts the amount of people who can come through emergency departments so we've had to free up beds by pausing elective surgery so we've got capacity in the system," he said.
"I've got an overnight report that the situation has steadied, and we haven't had a huge surge. The night before we had 106 people at Redcliffe Hospital and 102 at Caboolture at 9.30pm — there was a big surge Wednesday evening that led to that decision.
"Anyone in an emergency should call Triple 0 and our emergency departments will provide quality care."
Mr Nicholls said the department was keeping a "watching brief" on numbers, which would determine whether further elective surgery cancellations occurred this flu season.
"We're seeing similar presentations in Rockhampton, Gladstone and Ipswich where we're seeing big surges of winter flu and that's why the vaccination is so important," he said.
"Last week, more than 250 people were hospitalised with flu and on average, 169 patients are currently in hospital with flu and about 150 with COVID."
Staff shortages are also adding to the strain, as more frontline workers fall ill.
"Our nurses and doctors are being exposed and our rosters are getting affected by clinicians coming down with the flu, so that's adding to the challenge and our hospitals are doing a mighty job," Mr Nicholls said.
He warned this year's winter surge had been one of the most challenging in recent times.
"This year it's been worse, there's been a 16 per cent increase in the number of people presenting and 90 per cent presenting with flu are unvaccinated," he said.
Patients and health workers have voiced concerns over the system's capacity during flu season.
Lou, a patient at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, said she believed the surgery suspension should be extended because "it's crowded and ramping is up to six, seven hours.
"It's choc-a-block," she said.
"I was in the Emergency [Department] for seven hours. It should be extended for a lot more than 48 hours. There's not enough staff and the nurses just work and get no recognition."
Nursing students, Sarah and Gina, currently on placement at RBWH, said they feared the delays would impact their training.
"We're just a bit sad we might not get to experience some learning opportunities in some areas," Sarah said.
"We've selected this placement for surgical at RBWH as one of the biggest hospitals in South East Queensland, so we're hopeful we can care for people in surgery as well as those with cold and flu.
"For us, it means it makes it difficult from a learning perspective. Everyone should get vaccinated, it really does help. It's preventable," Gina added.
Since the end of 2021, there has been a pattern for COVID-19 where there are two peaks of deaths - one between November and January and the other between May and August.
Nationally, there were 581 deaths due to COVID-19 and 180 deaths due to influenza in the first four months of 2025.
Mr Nicholls said low vaccination rates were contributing to hospital pressure and strongly urged Queenslanders to get the flu shot.
"The government put $25 million into free flu vaccines so my real call to Queenslanders is to make sure you get the vaccine - it's safe, it's tested and it may prevent you from coming to hospital," he said.
"Queensland Health have been pushing people to get the flu vaccine that's been available since May 1 for free, but unfortunately sometimes it does take these sorts of circumstances to bring it to people's minds.
"It's not too late, don't think the season is half way through. Get the vaccination. There's no good reason not to get it. It's the best thing you can do for yourself, your family and your community."
Queensland Health is contacting patients whose surgeries have been delayed.