Friendly Society Private Hospital CEO Michelle Thompson said it was disappointing a vocal minority had made public baseless allegations about the hospital’s administration.

The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards today reaccredited the hospital for three years following a routine audit. This means the hospital complies with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and reinforces the safe quality health care provided by the Friendly’s to the Bundaberg Wide Bay community.

The hospital has had no adverse findings from any regulator, including the Office of the Health Ombudsman and the Private Health Regulation Unit, Queensland. No claims against the hospital’s administration have been substantiated.

“The allegations in various media outlets are false. They are causing a great deal of distress for everyone and have stained a proud 100 year history of diligently serving our community,” Ms Thompson said.

“We will, however, continue to manage all our 142 beds within clinical, fiscal and legal responsibilities,” she said. “Ultimately everything is based on improving patient outcomes.

“We will continue to apply the Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG) to determine admission rates, lengths of stay and discharge planning.

“This has been standard practice across hospitals in Australia since 1995.”

DRG groups hospital patients with similar conditions and treatments together so the hospital receives a set health fund payment for their whole stay, not for each individual service.

“When patients remain for long stays which may not be clinically necessary, the hospital does not receive sufficient funding to cover the cost.

“This impacts the delivery of care. We are an acute medical and surgical facility. We are not licensed for nursing home, respite or rehabilitative care.

“By far the majority of our visiting doctors do the right thing by their patients and health fund payment structures we are obliged to follow. I stress that the huge majority of our visiting doctors are playing by the rules,” she said.

Board Chair Barry Dangerfield said Ms Thompson had the full support of the Board in maintaining clinical, regulatory and governance requirements.