Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the shocking neglect of the health and hospital system in Central Queensland. Of particular concern today is the lack of spending by the state Labor government on the Gladstone Hospital and the lack of any consideration by the federal government to providing additional stimulus funding to bring this hospital up to a stand befitting an Australian industrial hub. Gladstone Hospital caters for a population of over 45,000, comprises 66 beds in the public hospital system and has community health services. The emergency department is crammed in with the outpatient department and it is totally inadequate for today’s demands.

Heaven forbid that we should ever have a serious disaster, because if we do Gladstone Hospital will be stretched beyond its limits. Emergency department presentations have risen by 28 per cent in the last six years. Believe me, they will continue to rise as industry gears up to accommodate the new LNG industry. Thousands of new workers and their families are due to start arriving in Gladstone within the next 12 months and we have a hospital that was built in the 1980s. It is an outrage. It is an outrage because the Labor government is intent on spending $6 million on a GP superclinic in Gladstone that is not needed. That money would be better off being applied to the Gladstone Hospital to provide a stand-alone emergency department and other services that will bring the hospital up to 2010 standards.

The management and staff are doing an incredible job with what they have, but they need more. People from Gladstone have to travel to Rockhampton up to three times per week for dialysis treatment. This is not their choice. They have to because Gladstone, Australia’s powerhouse industrial city, does not have the suitable equipment to provide this service. Gladstone Hospital needs $25 million now—no more bandaid treatments. Do it once and do it right. It is just $25 million for a city that provides Queensland, and Australia, with much of its wealth. The government promised a further $1.8 billion for regional health. All Gladstone needs is a lousy $25 million. This government has wasted more than that on the report on the NBN that it will not release to the Australian public. The people of Gladstone deserve better than what they are getting from the state and federal governments.