PATIENTS are being forced to wait hours for a bed as doctors reveal Tweed Hospital has been operating beyond capacity for more than a month.

Tweed Hospital Medical Staff Council co-chairman Dr Mike Lindley-Jones, who heads the Intensive Care Unit, described the hospital as being at "log-jam” in recent weeks - during what was traditionally the hospital's quiet time.

"We are at log-jam at the moment,” Dr Lindley-Jones said.

"There's been 15 or 20 (patients waiting) in ED and this is our quiet time.

"The hospital has two really busy times of the year - Christmas, because the Coast is full and we have a large number of people on holiday here, and winter, when people tend to get sick, so March is really a very quiet time usually.

"We think this is just a sign of how much we need a new hospital.”

Dr Lindley-Jones said some elective surgery had been forced to be put on hold to cope with the influx of patients.

"We are running at 106 per cent and we are not able to provide all of the elective services that we should be providing, like orthopedic operations to people,” he said.

"We are very full and there is a lot of unmet demand in the community.

"Today, for example, we have had between 15 to 20 waiting in the Emergency Department, three to four waiting in ICU to be able to get into beds in the hospital.

"It becomes a very inefficient way of running a hospital if everything is always full the whole time and unfortunately we have been like that for the last month.

"We are log-jammed. The staff are doing a magnificent job, the managers are doing whatever they can but we just don't have a big enough hospital.”

The revelations come as the Medical Council is in discussion with NSW Health infrastructure planners over the size of the new $536 million Tweed Valley Hospital, which is due to be built within five years.

"We can't base the numbers needed in the new hospital on the numbers that we currently have plus a little bit,” Dr Lindley-Jones said.

"It has got to be a dramatic increase to be able to cope even with current demand let alone with future demand.

"This hospital that we are planning is coming to a crucial stage where we are deciding on the numbers of beds and facilities that are needed to look after the Northern NSW are for the next generation This is a hospital for the next 30 or 40 years and we have to get it right.”

Currently, there are 210 overnight beds at Tweed and 55 at Murwillumbah Hospital.

"That is massively short,” Dr Lindley-Jones said.

"I think we need somewhere between 450 to 500 beds to be able to cope with not only the current demand that is being unmet but also the population growth and increased services because the Gold Coast Hospital has indicated to us that it can no longer take the overflow from Northern NSW because they are struggling with their own population problems.”

Dr Lindley-Jones said the hospital already worked closely with the nearby private John Flynn Hospital, particularly with heart attack patients.

Dr Lindley-Jones said while there were "concerns” he did not expect the influx of visitors for the Commonwealth Games in coming weeks to have too much impact on the Tweed, with Gold Coast University Hospital the designated Games hospital.

Response

Northern NSW Local Health District chief executive Wayne Jones acknowledged the hard work by the Tweed Hospital's staff, particularly in light of latest statistics showing the rise in patient numbers.

The most recent Bureau of Health Information report for the October to December 2017 quarter, showed the Tweed Hospital experienced a 3.7% increase (or 486 more) in in-patient presentations, when compared to the same quarter in 2016.

"It's not easy working in such a busy environment, especially one that is undergoing construction work at the same time,” Mr Jones said.

"This increase in patient numbers does place added strain on our dedicated medical and nursing workforce, and their efforts to maintain a high standard of performance are second to none.”

Mr Jones said even with the increase in patient numbers, the percentage of patients receiving care and leaving the Emergency Department within four hours improved slightly over the quarter, up to 83.4% compared to 81.8% for the same quarter in 2016.

"The ongoing sound performance of The Tweed Hospital is a testament to the hard work of our clinicians and hospital support staff,” Mr Jones said.

"We know our staff are having to deal with some tough conditions during this building phase, and we are working with them to make this transition period as smooth as we can.”

Mr Jones said funding of $534 million has been announced for a new state of the art hospital in the Tweed region and the NNSWLHD continues to invest in workforce and support services including more doctors and nurses to meet the growing demand.

He said a modular building was placed on the Tweed Hospital site towards the end of 2017 and is currently being transformed into an Inpatient Unit to be occupied in mid-2018.

"These holding works are essential for us to be able to continue to meet the health care needs of the Tweed community while the new hospital is being built,” Mr Jones said.

The works, due for completion in early 2019, will see:

• The expansion of the Emergency Department;
• Additional clinical beds in the Intensive Care Unit;
• An increased number of treatment chairs and consulting rooms for Oncology;
• An additional CT machine; and
• Increased number of Operating Theatres and increased surgical recovery area.

Negotiations are still underway with landowners over the location of the new Tweed Valley Hospital - with speculation it will be built in the area around the Cudgen Plateau.