Queensland is now leading Australian states with its Hospital targets according to National Health Performance Authority data. (AAP, Sydney).
Health Minister, Lawrence Springborg, has had hospitals in his sights for years and understands what needed to be done to bring Queensland into this century.
"Queensland is leading the pack, with three out of 24 hospitals already achieving the 2015 target. These are Gympie, Gladstone and Mt. Isa.
The State also boasts the most improved hospital, the Princess Alexandra in Brisbane which has soared from being the country's worst performer at 33 per cent in 2011 to 62 per cent."
This outcome has come about because an LNP government is now in power in Queensland. Since they were elected, seventeen local hospital Boards have been established which people have been crying out for over the years. This achievement would not have occurred under the previous dreary government that we had for two decades.
Health Minister, Lawrence Springborg, has had hospitals in his sights for years and understands what needed to be done to bring Queensland into this century.
"Queensland is leading the pack, with three out of 24 hospitals already achieving the 2015 target. These are Gympie, Gladstone and Mt. Isa.
The State also boasts the most improved hospital, the Princess Alexandra in Brisbane which has soared from being the country's worst performer at 33 per cent in 2011 to 62 per cent."
This outcome has come about because an LNP government is now in power in Queensland. Since they were elected, seventeen local hospital Boards have been established which people have been crying out for over the years. This achievement would not have occurred under the previous dreary government that we had for two decades.
Thank you Campbell Newman and the LNP team
Bloody hell! the other 21 must be pretty bad if Gladstone is one of the 3 best in the country.
ReplyDeleteThe standing joke at the Rockhampton Base Hospital is that Gladstone is just a "First Aid" outpost for Rockhampton.
Broken limbs cannot be fixed at the Gladstone Hospital, they have to be taken to Rockhampton for treatment and if you are more than a skinny model size you cannot even have your baby at the Gladstone Hospital.
Larger ladies MUST go to Rockhampton or another centre.
I believe that dialysis patients are once again having to go to Rockhampton (more than 100 kms away) several times a week.
The Gladstone hospital opened in 1988 with 100 BEDS and 2 OPERATING Theatres, but today in spite of the fact that up to 10,000 workers are here to build the massive LNG and Coal Ports, there are only about 35 BEDS and very few operations are performed here now.
The top floor of the hospital which is fully equipped now has NO active wards, they have all been taken up for storage and room to house the bureucrats who up until recently at least, outnumbered the Medical workers by about 7 to 1.
I am a large person and I cannot have any sort of operation at the Gladstone hospital no matter how urgent because they claim that I am too big.
8 years ago I had 2 fairly major operations at the Gladstone hospital but operations on larger people have now been banned.
The reason that Gladstone has a quicker than most other hospitals and a shorter waiting list is because that any serious patients are not treated here but taken straight to Rockhampton and the waiting list is very short here because they are not waiting here, they are on the waiting lists at Rockhampton or Brisbane.
More smoke and mirrors and doctored figures.
Sad to say, I believe your appraisal of Gladstone Hospital would be reflected in the Gympie Hospital situation, Peter. The status referred to in the newspaper report related only to emergency department targets, of course, and that could have something to do with the great and highly efficient staff we have here in Gympie.
ReplyDeleteGympie was once a teaching hospital; but as with Gladstone, over the years of Labor control, most of our services have been taken away. A 27-bed ward was closed and turned into offices, I was told - yes, more and more bureaucrats, and frustrated health workers.
However, Laurence Springborg has been enacting some positive changes in Gympie and elsewhere. As Beverley points out the LNP has restored "seventeen local hospital Boards" returning some much needed autonomy to these hospitals. Let's hope the LNP continues in this vein!
It is sad to say that the short times for for attention at the Gladstone hospital emergency dept are basically because any serious cases are transported straight to Rockhampton hospital, so gladstone really usually deals only with non serious cases.
DeleteThere are times when there are really serious cases but on those occasions the patients are stabilised and transported to Rockhampton.
There are no real facilities to handle serious cases anymore in spite of the massive amount of FIFO workers in Gladstone.
8 to 10 years ago there were some very good facilities that were in place but they have mostly gone now, including restricting the size of women wanting to have a baby at Gladstone hospital and the restrictions on the size that a person must be to be allowed to have an operation at Gladstone Hospital.
There is much more that I know and could tell but I do not want to break the confidence of a family member who worked at he hospital in a senior (medical) position for 8 years.
I can relate to what you are saying, Peter. I also could disclose some stories confided to me over the years by some desperately unhappy medical personnel, frustrated by their sense of powerlessness.
DeleteThere is still a lot of room for improvement for our hospital system. One measurement to show that their has been some improvement since the election of the Newman government in Qld is that major stuff ups in the hospital system aren't on the nightly news bulletin. The last half of Bligh's term as premier we had the debacle of the salary payment system; ambulance cues; beds closing and watch out if you had to have surgery at the Bundaberg hospital.
ReplyDeleteTo be given the health portfolio in the new LNP government was like receiving the poisoned chalice. I thought at the time that it will make or break the political future of Lawrence Springborg.
I feel Lawrence has been rising to the challenge in this difficult situation, Dale and bringing in some highly desirable changes.
DeleteRe the infamous Bundaberg surgeon, my eldest son, on an overnight visit to Bundaberg found himself in hospital having emergency surgery for acute appendicitis! That was before we heard any of the reports about Dr Patel and by the grace of God, all went well.