The boss of the Queensland Police Union has hit out at “health bureaucrats” for police being called to act as taxis to ferry patients to hospital.

It comes amid the deepening public health crisis across Brisbane.

CEO Ian Leavers claimed the ambulance service was sometimes “missing in action” forcing police to take on the role of transporting people to hospital.

But he later told Scott Emerson he had the utmost respect for paramedics, and while he wasn’t criticising them, the system was broken.

“It is simply not working at this point in time,” he said.

“Where we are concerned as police we are not trained health professionals, we have basic training … we can only treat people to a certain level and when it’s becoming our role to convey people to hospital for treatment, it’s simply unacceptable.

“The bureaucrats within the health department need to have a look at this, address it and fix the problem.

“Fortunately at this no point in time, no person has died, we cannot wait until that happens.”

Press PLAY to hear his response to the criticism of police

RELATED

‘You’ve got to act’: Ray Hadley calls for investigation into claims of police oversight