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Questions On Notice Questions on notice are usually asked when a more detailed answer is required and are in writing, and are forwarded by the Clerk of the Parliament to the relevant Minister who prepares a written answer which is presented to Parliament.
Gold Coast Health Service |
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| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Sep 10 2008 |
| Questions On Notice >> |
Question:
Mr LAWLOR:
My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, I refer to media coverage of the seasonal pressures on our public hospitals in this past few weeks. Can the minister please advise the House as to how the Gold Coast Health Service has coped with this demand?
Answer:
Mr ROBERTSON:
I thank the member for the question, because the Gold Coast Health Service District has made some significant inroads into managing winter demand in just the last 12 months. These strong results have demonstrated that in just over a year the Bligh government's investment in health services on the Gold Coast is paying real dividends.
A number of Bligh government initiatives to manage and plan for growth on the Gold Coast have seen a significant reduction in the number of surgical cancellations, hospital bypass occurrences and
capacity alerts, despite a significant increase in the number of patients admitted. The total number of admissions to Gold Coast hospitals has increased by 17 per cent over the last 12 months, but the number of episodes of cancellation of surgery due to beds being unavailable has decreased by 71 per cent.
In the past 12 months, the Bligh government has implemented a number of strategies to meet the rapidly growing demands for health services on the Gold Coast. These include the opening of the new
$40 million emergency department at Robina Hospital; the creation of a new 20-bed medical ward at the Gold Coast Hospital; the leasing of 25 palliative care beds at Pacific Private Hospital; the opening of 26 interim care beds at the Carrara Health Centre, with an additional 37 beds to open by October; and, of course, the opening of the new Gold Coast surgicentre at Allamanda, just across the road from Southport Hospital.
This new facility is another example of the Bligh government's commitment to investing in new ways to provide quality health care in order to reduce waiting times for elective surgery in Queensland.
Over 68 patients have already received their elective surgery treatment at the new surgicentre and, as it ramps up to be fully operational by the end of this year, we will be on track to deliver over 6,000 elective surgery operations at that new centre over the course of a year. The recruitment of staff continues. As I
said, we are on track to open that centre by the end of this year.
Health services at the Gold Coast will be further strengthened when we deliver on our election promises of opening the new Gold Coast University Hospital in 2012 and further expanding the Robina
Hospital. I am pleased to advise the House that last week contractors were engaged to begin the second stage of the Robina Hospital expansion, meaning that we are on track to deliver the additional 179 beds for the Gold Coast coming out of Robina Hospital by 2012. Last changed: [PUBLISHED_DATE] at 9:39 AM
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