We, the undersigned, respectfully request that our previous hospital referral system in Cairns and Hinterland be reinstated for the following reasons:

1. Our present Medical Referral System has let us down.  It can take up to six weeks before a referral is given a category and then placed on a waitlist.  The referrals sit in a pile on a desk waiting for a clinician to view them. This means a client may become chronically ill or even die before their referral is seen by a clinician.  This affects all of us and those we love;
2. The reason for the long delay in having a referral seen by a clinician is NOT because of COVID 19; NOT because of a shortage of doctors; NOT because of a shortage of anything at all except common sense;
3. There would be very little cost involved in returning the referral system to how it ran previously.  All referrals would be sent by GPs to the relevant hospital where the procedure would take place; there it would be give a category; put on a waitlist and the patient sent a letter of notification.  This would be done within two weeks at most;
4. Qld Health is in breach of The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights which states that clients should "receive safe and high quality health services, provided with professional care, skill and competence".  Our present referral system falls well short of this.  This therefore could lead to expensive litigation against Qld Health.  This money would be better spent on improving services to the voters in Queensland electorates.