CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT
ZAC BEERS
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FLYNN
LABOR TO DELIVER BETTER HEALTH SERVICES FOR BLACKWATER
A Shorten Labor Government will deliver better health services for the people of Central Queensland by building an all-new multi-purpose health facility at Blackwater.
If elected in May, Labor will invest $17.9 million to replace the current Blackwater Multi-Purpose Health Service facility, which is approaching the end of its useful life.
Multi-Purpose Health Services are integrated facilities built in rural areas of Queensland where populations are not big enough to support separate hospital and aged care facilities.
The current 12-bed building provides emergency, inpatient, outpatient, palliative and residential aged care to the people of Blackwater and the nearby towns of Bluff, Dingo and Comet.
The building itself is outdated, with a number of systems – including air conditioning and IT – no longer meeting the needs of clinicians or the community.
A new facility will continue to deliver all these vital services but ensure better, safer and more efficient patient-focused care.
The new building will include a helicopter landing site for emergency retrievals, and will provide better opportunities for telehealth services. It will also help with attracting and retaining qualified staff.
Labor – both federal and state – is committed to investing in Queensland’s health services. We believe all Queenslanders should have affordable access to top quality health care, whether they live in downtown Brisbane or rural areas like Blackwater.
When the closest hospital is almost an hour’s drive away, it’s vital that the Blackwater health facility is properly resourced and fit for purpose.
In contrast to Labor, the LNP just cut and cut and cut from health.
As Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut from health and hospitals in every Budget he authored.
He cut $160 million from Queensland’s hospitals under the current 2017 to 2020 funding agreement.
Now Morrison is trying to lock in those cuts for another five years – a dud deal that the Queensland Labor Government is resisting.
Locally, Ken O’Dowd and the LNP have been responsible for $6.1 million worth of cuts from Central Queensland Health Services, with the Blackwater Hospital missing out on funding time and time again.
Labor will reverse the Liberal cuts with our $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, which we will use to fund this new facility in Blackwater.
Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s health and hospital services.
FRIDAY, 8 MARCH 2019