Gladstone deserves a better deal on public health
Right now, Gladstone Hospital has no Intensive Care Unit or resident medical specialists.
Locals must travel to Rockhampton or Brisbane, even for simple procedures. There is no capacity if a major industrial workplace accident occurs.
Our community deserves better. Restoring the ICU will attract specialists and other medical professionals back to Gladstone to practise. Additionally, a Patient Travel Subsidy payment increase is crucial for those who still need to travel.
Our community is putting Labor and the LNP on notice. Let’s start building our hospital services back to where they were.
How did we get here?
Gladstone Hospital has been progressively stripped of funding and resources - despite our region generating billions in revenue for governments and corporations.
It is now little more than a triage service, unable to provide comprehensive or long-term care. Patients are frequently forced to travel to Rockhampton for something as simple as a fracture. More complex treatments inevitably involve travel to Brisbane.
While Gladstone Hospital once had several medical specialists on staff, they left in 2019 when the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CQHHS) downgraded our hospital from "level four" to "level three". In real terms, this means we have fewer public health services and a drastically reduced availability of specialist care.
The most significant reason we cannot attract medical specialists to live, work and stay in our city is because we lack an Intensive Care Unit.
With no ICU, there can be no surgery. Alarmingly, Gladstone has no safety net for any large-scale industrial or manufacturing accident that might occur.
Subsequently, patients needing secondary specialist treatment for chronic conditions are frequently forced to travel to Brisbane at great personal expense, even if they access the Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme (PTSS).
Supporting Patient Travel
While the PTSS just rose to $70 per night (the first increase in a decade), the rate is insufficient and out of touch. In Brisbane, this would pay for a dormitory bed in a backpackers with a shared bathroom at best.
There is no additional reimbursement for parking, tolls, taxis, airport transfers, public transport or meals.
Gladstone residents should not have to get to Brisbane and back to receive essential healthcare, but it is often our only choice. Why should we have to pay out of pocket to travel for health services we used to be able to receive here?
We are calling for an ICU for Gladstone Hospital to restore our public health services to where they were and increase the PTSS to help those still left behind.