Almost every public hospital in south-east Queensland is at capacity, and nurses are calling out for change.

The state’s Health Minister has urged Queenslanders not to go hospital unless it is a medical emergency.

The State Government has also released $3 million in emergency funds to help open beds in private hospitals to cope with the demand.

“We know that staff are suffering, we know that patients are suffering, we know there's adverse outcomes and increasing aggression and violence,” president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Simon Judkins said.

A range of non-critical surgeries have been cancelled, while the new funds should grant access to about 50 beds in the private sector.

The Queensland Nurses Union says the system is struggling under structural issues that need to be addressed.

“We need to go to the root cause and not just put bandaids over the issues as they arise,” she told the ABC.

“I think this is a multifaceted and complex issue and I think it's good we are having a response to the current immediate crisis that we have.

“But we've got to move out of reactive mode and develop short, medium and long-term strategies to address this.

“There's a whole lot of issues in relation to the inter-relationship with nursing homes, with NDIS, with primary health care. People are under so much financial pressure in the community … people can't necessarily afford to go to their GP.”