Official figures by the AMA have revealed the distressing fact that the rising coastal population in the southeast and north is facing a huge and very grave shortage of public hospital beds in Queensland, and the lack is even more prominent in the Gold and Sunshine coast areas. The discovery has led to AMA Queensland President Mason Stevenson to bitterly accuse the State Treasury of "holding away over patients' lives".

"If you are a citizen of the Gold or Sunshine coast, (your) health and safety is compromised. And patients will continue to suffer, and some patients will die, as a result", De. Stevenson angrily said.

The situation, however, seems to be at its worst in Gold Coast, as it has been revealed that the new Gold Coast University Hospital, which is scheduled to open by late 2012, will be instilled with as many as 150 fewer beds than initially promised. Queensland Health Deputy Director-General Michael Walsh has blamed "staff recruitment delays" over cost cuts for the situation.

A hospital-by-hospital analysis has graded that Mackay Health Service District as Queensland's worst provider of overnight public beds, with "6 hospital, 252 beds and only 1.5 beds per 1000 patients".

Over the coming 20 years, experts believe that the population of coastal regions will go up by around 500,000 to 823,000. With the revelations, authorities are now under increased pressure to try and make things better as soon as possible.