Emergency room wait time limits 'to cause errors' Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital staff are struggling to cope with their workload amid budget cuts. Picture: Paul Riley Source: The Courier-Mail NEW benchmarks forcing emergency department staff to treat and discharge patients within four hours could lead to more mistakes and misdiagnoses. The peak body representing doctors said the State Government needed to ensure systems were in place at hospitals to support the four-hour rule. The Australian Medical Assocation of Queensland president Dr Alex Markwell said hospitals were already under "severe strain." "The risk is if they're pushed by the administrators to meet those targets because their funding depends on it, then mistakes will get made and patients will suffer," Dr Markwell said. I expect we'll see some pushback from the clinicians over the next few months because they will feel very uncomfortable about the targets they're being expected to meet and their priority is about patient safety and patient care. Mackay is one example. I know the staff at Gold Coast are struggling as well, particularly across two campuses, which is another factor. The Courier-Mail revealed yesterday Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital's (RBWH) emergency department was regularly missing injuries as staff struggled with the workload amid strained resources. "If you're relying on the doctor at the time to pick everything that's wrong with them and make a decision in an instant, the reality is we miss things," Dr Markwell said. People's symptoms change over time. He said doctors would be among up to 1000 job cuts at Metro North announced by the State Government. An RBWH spokeswoman said yesterday it was unable to confirm or deny reports it would lose 100 staff specialists. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said his Government was committed to meeting the four-hour rule set in the COAG (Council of Australian Governments) agreement. But it had misgivings, including more people going to emergency departments because they'd be seen within four hours.