Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, you know, as we all know, that Townsville is Australia’s largest tropical city. We have a level 6 hospital that services all of North Queensland. Yesterday, that hospital went on code yellow. What does code yellow mean for a hospital? It was the first time it had ever happened. What does code yellow mean? It means that, at three o’clock yesterday afternoon, there were 24 patients who could not get a bed. There were patients lying on beds in ambulances outside the door of the hospital.

Our community, our medical professionals and our state government have known for two years that the Townsville Hospital is not coping. Mr Beattie, the former Premier, came to Townsville and said, ‘We’ll build you an $85 million new wing and provide more beds.’ Nothing has happened. But what do the local state members—and there are three of them—do? In this morning’s Townsville Bulletin we read:

Thuringowa MP Craig Wallace said Health Minister Stephen Robertson was ‘aware the hospital is experiencing maybe its highest demand ever’.

Thank you, Mr Wallace! In the same article we also read:

Mundingburra MP Lindy Nelson-Carr said the inpatient bed shortage was caused by winter ailments ...

And:

Townsville MP Mike Reynolds said he was ‘extremely sympathetic’ ...

Well, for heaven’s sake! That really helps, doesn’t it! Three state members have known about this problem for several years, the entire medical profession have known about it for several years, and all they can say is: ‘Oh well, it is winter,’ and, ‘Sorry to those 24 patients, but we cannot give you a bed—you will have to do something else.’ I wonder what that something else is. How could the state government allow a level 6 hospital—a tertiary treatment hospital—serving the whole of North Queensland not to have any beds?

What to do about it? I certainly know how to solve the problem immediately. Yes, of course there is a master planning process going on. It has been very slow and it needs to speed up. We need the beds now. The solution to that is to get hold of the hospital administration and toss them out of the hospital and replace them with wards. The buildings are there, the services are there and the space is there. Just move the administration to an adjacent building—there is space to do that—and replace the floor area that they currently occupy with wards. That will immediately provide tens of new beds.

I appeal to the Minister for Health and Ageing and I appeal to the Premier: we are sick and tired in Townsville; please, please, please fix the problem. (Time expired)