A support group that assists rural and regional families when travelling to Brisbane for medical care believes the Premier needs to intervene with the children’s health system at the new Lady Cilento Hospital.

Breaking Down the Barriers for Rural Patients in City Hospitals helps patients and families with support when away from home and believes the health system is failing Queensland families.

Since the merging of the Mater Children’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital earlier this year, families travelling to Brisbane for treatment at the Lady Cilento are telling the support group that they not getting the treatment required.

Families are also finding the new Connected Care Program created by Children’s Health Queensland is not helping families with the assistance they need.

The program was created a year ago to help families with travel assistance and to supply co-ordinators to help streamline treatment visits to Brisbane.

Breaking Down the Barriers co-ordinator Justine Christerson said cancelled surgeries, lack of beds, and not enough staff are impacting on patients’ needs.

“Unfortunately it is happening far too often, staff are now being ordered that children who are not emergency admission that have multiple medical needs and multi-disciplinary medical teams are not to be admitted at the moment,” she told ABC Radio Queensland’s David Curnow.

“They do not have enough beds, as they only have 288 despite the 359 they promote and they do not have enough staff.

“The hospital is severely in crisis at the moment and worst of all Queensland’s sick children are in crisis, especially those with complex medical needs – they are the ones missing out.”

Ms Christerson said she had spoken to families who travelled for hours to get to Brisbane only to be told their surgery was cancelled.

“On top of that if you are rural, you are really stuffed… it [the Lady Cilento hospital] can’t cope, it cannot do emergency admissions,” she said.

“The issue is they don’t have enough staff or enough beds, and the really upsetting thing is that there is nothing being done to fix the issue, that is a really big problem.”

Issues with Connected Care program

The Connected Care program run by Children’s Health Queensland began a year ago and aims to improve access to specialist services and support for children and families who live throughout Queensland.

A previous system at the Mater Children’s Hospital called Complex Care existed before the Mater and Royal Children’s hospitals merged.

Ms Christerson said she was excited when the program was first announced at the Rural Clinicians State conference last year.

“I tell families about Connected Care and tell them how it is suited for their situation,” she said.

“I really pushed this and for this not to be working out, to hear that they are not taking on even families who were under the Complex Care program via the Mater Hospital have now been told they don’t qualify.

“What should have happened is the Complex Care families should have gone under the Connected Care program.”

She said some families were happy with the service they received from Connected Care, but there have been communication problems since the merge.

“The problem is I then get feedback from families who were excited about getting another avenue of support then contact me to tell me they don’t qualify,” Ms Christerson said.

“One family was told their children were not critical enough and will no longer qualify for the program.”

Helping those away from home

Ms Christerson began the Breaking Down the Barriers group in 2012 after living in Biloela and being transferred to Rockhampton for treatment for her son.

After moving to Brisbane she began helping families who were required to travel to Brisbane for medical needs.

“I provide support with friendship and practical support, whether adult or children patients, they are separated from loved ones at one of the critical times of their lives,” she said.

“I play that role of the friend in Brisbane, I visit them, I send them text, I can provide emergency clothing, toiletries and help the families navigate the health system.”

“I also help them better understand the patient travel scheme and the organisations they can connect with.”

Ms Christerson said the program helped both the patients and the families.

“The whole idea of the program is, one less worry can make a huge difference to someone’s journey,” she said.

Deputy Director of Medical Services for the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital and medical leader for the statewide Connected Care program, Lynee McKinlay, sent an email to the ABC in response to the allegations.

In November 2014, patients who were actively managed by the Mater Health Services Complex Care Program were transitioned across to the Children’s Health Queensland Connected Care Program.

This change occurred in conjunction with the amalgamation of services from the Royal and Mater children’s hospitals to the new Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

Ahead of the transition, all families received a letter advising of the new program and we have progressively been contacting these families to determine their child’s needs.

Our intention was for every child being actively managed by the Mater Complex Care Program to move across to the Connected Care Program, regardless of eligibility.

Any families who believe their child’s care has not been appropriately transitioned are encouraged to contact the Connected Care team.

The ABC contacted Health Minister Cameron Dick, but he was unavailable for a response.