CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT
CORINNE MULHOLLAND
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR PETRIE
LABOR TO REDEVELOP PAEDIATRIC FACILITIES AT REDCLIFFE HOSPITAL
A Shorten Labor Government will provide better emergency facilities for children in Brisbane’s northside by investing in major improvements to the Redcliffe Hospital Emergency Department.
This $10 million emergency department redesign will ensure that paediatric patients are treated in their own dedicated area, separate to adult patients.
The Australian College of Emergency Medicine guidelines says “children and young persons should be kept separate from the other patients in the department: ideally by the creation of paediatric areas. Where this is not possible the use of various visual and auditory screening devices should be employed to provide separation.”
Children who are not treated separately can be in the same space as adults who are extremely unwell or at the end of their lives, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, suffering mental health conditions or acting violently.
But Redcliffe Hospital does not currently have separate spaces for children waiting for emergency care or for children being cared for within the emergency department.
The redesign – which will involve a minor extension of the building – is expected to provide five assessment spaces, four short stay spaces and a small internal waiting space for children.
This redesign will ensure local families can get the contemporary, safe and equitable care for their kids without needing to travel to other areas of Brisbane.
There is a growing need for these changes: emergency department visits for children at Redcliffe Hospital are projected to increase from 13,307 presentations in 2016-17 to 15,811 presentations in 2026-27.
This investment builds on Labor’s promise of a new Medicare-funded MRI licence for Redcliffe Hospital – which will make life-saving scans more affordable for the people of this region.
Both these commitments come after months of advocacy by Labor’s candidate for Petrie, Corinne Mulholland. She believes the people of her community deserve the best possible health care whenever they need it.
The Liberals on the other hand just cut and cut and cut from health. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut from health and hospitals in every Budget he authored.
His government cut $4.2 million from Redcliffe Hospital under the current 2017 to 2020 funding agreement.
That’s equivalent to 6,300 emergency department visits or 10,300 outpatient appointments. And it’s part of a $160m cut to Queensland hospitals and a $715m cut nationwide.
Now Morrison is trying to lock in those cuts for another five years – a dud deal that the Queensland Labor Government is resisting.
Labor will reverse the Liberal cuts with our $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, which we will use to fund this new upgrade at Redcliffe Hospital.
Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s hospitals.
THURSDAY, 7 MARCH 2019