Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that the previous hospital patient referral system be reinstated in the region covered by the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service for the following reasons:

1. Under the current system it can take up to six weeks before a referral is triaged and placed on a waitlist. A client may become chronically ill or even die before their referral is seen by a clinician;

2. This is not due to COVID 19; nor because of a shortage of doctors.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to take immediate action to reinstate the previous referral system at CHHHS, where all referrals would be sent by GPs to the relevant hospital where the procedure would take place and patients would be sent a letter of notification within two weeks.