Gympie Electorate, Health Services
Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (11.14 pm): Stretched healthcare services in the Gympie electorate are one of the most common complaints I receive. Last week I met with Sunshine Coast health district representatives and community representatives for a briefing about a multidisciplinary medical centre on the Cooloola coast. I requested the briefing from the minister because of concerns about health services for the coast’s permanent population of 6,500, many on low incomes or elderly.
The department advised that it is about to start on two-, five- and 10-year forward plans for our local health and infrastructure needs. In July it will start collecting data for a detailed analysis and demographic profile of the region, both now and with future expectations from population growth. It will include statistics such as emergency department treatments, types of trauma and ambulance transfers and will look at capital, infrastructure and workforce needs.
The coast’s population swells by thousands during the peak tourist season. Patients travel significant distances for many basic treatments that are available in towns with populations as low as 2,000 that could be performed in a local multidisciplinary centre. In late April there were no doctors available at the coast’s only surgery. Many patients were too ill or had no transport to travel a 100-kilometre round trip to the Gympie Hospital. The community started the not-for-profit Cooloola Coast Medical Transport service to take patients—the frail, aged, disabled, geographically or socially isolated—to out-of-town medical appointments. It fills the gaps in the current system provided by the Queensland Ambulance Service and the Patient Transport Subsidy Scheme.
The emergency ward and maternity services at the Gympie Hospital urgently need upgrading and expansion. Residents tell me that the emergency department cannot cope with the number of patients fronting up. They are told to come back later, travel a 185-kilometre round trip to the Sunshine Coast or go find a GP. Gympie Private Hospital closed in late February. Patients either are fronting up to the Gympie Hospital or are forced to travel to the Sunshine Coast. Some dental procedures that require access to a theatre can no longer be performed in the region.
Residents from Glenwood and surrounding towns are calling for an ambulance station. More than 6,000 residents often wait up to 40 minutes for an ambulance from Gympie or Maryborough. It is a trip of between 40 and 60 kilometres to reach Glenwood, let alone someone’s residence—and double that to be taken back.
Complaints include waiting lists that are like a game of snakes and ladders, patients being transferred to hospitals out of the region then discharged with no way of getting home, long waiting times in ED, no beds, being sent home only to return with a worsening condition, being told the hospital cannot help and to ‘go talk to your GP’—that is a bit hard when you cannot get into a GP—and receiving no confirmation that appointment bookings are even registered.