Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (6.00 pm): Last month more than 100 families, patients and local
doctors attended Gympie’s health crisis town hall meeting. Right across the board services are under
stress at Gympie Hospital. Patients are transferred or told to travel 100 kilometres to the Sunshine
Coast for basic healthcare treatments. Almost daily I am told of problems.
In June the fracture clinic was closed with no warning. Patients were sent away from booked
appointments and told to either see their GP or travel with broken limbs to the Sunshine Coast University
Hospital. A petition against the closure already has more than 6,100 signatures. Last year it was the
paediatric ward. That only reopened after several months following strong community outrage. It is only
open from nine to five. One patient has told me Queensland Health has advised her that the fracture
clinic has reopened, but only one day a fortnight. It is a joke. Patients must ensure they need the clinic
on the day it is open otherwise they must go to the Sunshine Coast.
A Potemkin village was a fake portable village built to impress Catherine the Great as she
travelled through the regions. This is Queensland Health’s version—a clinic in name only. Implying it
exists without providing a reasonable level of basic service is spin and weasel words. Local doctors
have spoken of dangerous situations, treating patients who should be in hospital. Doctors are at
breaking point as they try to pick up the slack. They are spending hours on the phone trying to get their
patients treated. Vulnerable residents on fixed or low incomes cannot afford to be discharged late at
night or be transferred to the Sunshine Coast. They cannot afford to travel for treatments.
I am still waiting for a response from the minister about the unannounced removal of
administrative assistance to help patients access the Patient Transport Subsidy Scheme. Many patients
do not and cannot access the internet. They find the paperwork onerous, confusing and overwhelming.
It is the second time the service has been removed. It has been replaced with an inadequate phone line
that is often not answered.
Our master clinical services plan was delayed by 20 months—perhaps because Gympie needs
a new hospital. It said that the facilities are old and not fit for purpose with services fragmented, spread
across multiple buildings. It is falling apart. Last year I was told patients use their mobile phones to ring
for attention. Now I am told patients are given phones to ring the nurses station. Staff have scavenged
discarded equipment from Nambour Hospital. They brought back better equipment than was being used
at the Gympie Hospital. The roof leaks. During heavy rains water was leaking into live power points in
the maternity ward and other areas. They lost two rooms in the maternity unit because it rained. Parents
are given a blanket to sleep on the floor beside their teenagers who are admitted to the hospital. It is
not good enough.
