CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT
ALI FRANCE
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DICKSON
BETTER SPECIALIST SERVICES FOR BRISBANE’S NORTHSIDE UNDER LABOR
The people of Brisbane’s northside will benefit from better specialist outpatient services under a Federal Labor plan to build a new Specialist Care Centre in the Moreton Bay region.
A Shorten Labor Government will invest $30 million to give residents better access to community-based specialist health services so they don’t need to travel to hospitals.
This new integrated facility will provide access to a range of specialist outpatient services delivered by Queensland Health’s world-class doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, so patients can access these services closer to home and in a more convenient setting.
The new facility will also help free up capacity at nearby hospitals, including The Prince Charles Hospital, Redcliffe Hospital and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
This investment is part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to fix our hospitals and strengthen Medicare. It will help ensure this region’s booming and ageing population has the services it needs for the decades to come.
This $30 million will go towards:
- Determining the best location and buying the land in the Strathpine or Warner area;
- Planning, design and construction of the building;
- Ensuring access to contemporary communications technology, including telehealth
While the services to be provided in the new facility will be determined in consultation with local hospitals and the local community, it is proposed that the key services will include community-based rehabilitation, diabetes clinics and healthy ageing clinics.
Queensland’s Metro North Hospital and Health Service had an estimated population in 2015 of nearly a million people – about 20 per cent of Queensland’s total.
It’s projected to reach more than 1.2 million people by 2031.
So this community needs more and better health services to service its rapidly growing population – and Labor is committed to delivering them.
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 delivered.
He cut $160 million from Queensland’s hospitals under the current 2017 to 2020 funding agreement. And now he’s 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 Specialist Care Centre.
Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s health and hospital services.
THURSDAY, 14 MARCH 2019