A central Queensland baby's death has sparked calls for the state's child safety system to be overhauled as the minister responsible denied a "backlog" of cases in her overworked department.
The six-month-old boy died in Rockhampton Hospital on Monday, almost three months after his case was first brought to the attention of authorities.
Police visited the family's home in Yeppoon after initial concerns were raised in January, however child safety officers did not meet with the family.
Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman said this was standard practice in such cases, with police often asked to perform initial checks.
"Certainly there will be a review into my department's actions in this case, but at the moment, we're co-operating with police to find out what happened here."
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Ms Fentiman rejected Opposition accusations of a growing backlog of cases, but admitted more must be done to remove "pressure" from child safety officers.
"Caseloads at the moment are sitting at 19 (per officer) and that is far too high," Ms Fentiman said.
"Our injection of new staff will bring caseloads down this year to around 17 (per officer) but we still have a way to go to reach the recommended 15 caseloads by 2018."
Child safety services are already under intense scrutiny after the deaths of Caboolture toddler Mason Jet Lee and Logan schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer in the past 18 months.
Opposition child safety spokeswoman Ros Bates said specialist officers, not police should have been sent to assess the family in the first instance.
"That did not occur in this instance, it didn't occur in Mason's instance and it certainly didn't occur in Tiahleigh Palmer's instance," Ms Bates told reporters on Friday.
"We need to make sure if we are getting these reports that they are actioned, and we're not going to be standing here next week talking about another child who has lost their life in this system."
She suggested a "triage" system be put in place where child endangerment cases are actioned within 24 hours, but public sector union Together secretary Alex Scott said a new funding model was needed for Queensland's child safety system.
"We want this government to bite the bullet and actually develop a funding model that matches the needs for the community before the crisis happens, rather than responding to increase in child safety numbers after tragedies have happened," Mr Scott said on Friday.
He said the state's response to child safety cases would be tethered to a "boom and bust" cycle of funding without an overhaul.
