Doctors are telling patients with acne, splinters, warts and minor ailments to instead seek help from a GP rather than clogging up Queensland emergency departments.
Queensland Health’s Chief Clinical Information, Officer Keith McNeil, said that about 32% of the 155,000 emergency department presentations in the state’s public hospitals every month could instead be treated by a GP.
Mr. McNeil says “ED clinicians work hard, saving life and limb, ensuring people are treated in a timely manner (and) these non-emergency and less severe type presentations make it much harder to do that.”