The Government must commit to a process to deliver a new hospital for Gympie.
The Master Clinical Services Plan clearly identifies that the Gympie hospital cannot provide
the level of service this community deserves.
We need to start planning for a new one.
The evidence is overwhelming and backs up what I’m hearing daily directly from
constituents.
The Gympie hospital is failing us.
It has serviced the community over long period, but its time has come.
It’s all very well to have a plan but the Government needs to commit to a new hospital now.
This report highlights everything that I’ve been saying for the last six years.
Right across the board services have been under stress and patients are transferred to the
Sunshine Coast.
In some cases, services are removed altogether.
No one finds out until they notice a change in what’s provided, or a loss of services.
There are issues in the paediatric ward, ambulance ramping, emergency department, the
contraction of services obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics.
Residents on the Cooloola Coast are forced to travel long distances for many basic health
care treatments that are available in regions with far smaller populations.
The hospital is on a constrained site at the top of a hill, and parking requires a steep uphill
trek for patients and visitors to reach the hospital.
The hospital is old, fragmented, and services are spread across multiple aged buildings.
A Queensland Audit Office Report (QAO) found that the hospital is not meeting any of its
treatment time targets.
Last month the Auditor General found that Gympie hospital has not met clinical
recommended targets for the emergency department and ambulance ramping.
These are the front-line services, often the first experience when you go to hospital.
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In the June quarter ambulance ramping was 29% which is an increase of 9.3% over the same
period last year.
The QAO said ambulance ramping is worsening and “this target has not been met at the
statewide level in the past seven years.”
This would be unacceptable in any other region.
The statistics in this report are a damning indictment that the needs of this region are not
being met.
It highlights that the population is vulnerable with significant socio-economic disadvantage
and higher rates of chronic disease and hospitalisation, and risk factors that lead to poorer
health.
Our region has the highest rates of diabetes; mental and behavioral problems; heart, stroke,
and vascular disease; asthma; chronic pulmonary disease; arthritis; and osteoporosis.
This report was due 20 months ago and the evidence is clear why it was delayed.
The problems haven’t gone away – they have increased.
Gympie is experiencing high growth and the report notes that COVID has accelerated growth
as more people move to the regions.
The hospital’s problems are not the fault of Covid 19 as they’ve have been occurring long
before the last year.
A commitment to a new Gympie hospital cannot be put on the backburner.
26 October 2021
Contact: Tony Perrett 5329 5100
