Helipad before the hospital: MP questions LNP’s priorities on health infrastructure
Debate over Cairns Hospital’s helipad has spun out of control as an MP accuses the LNP of using the controversial landing site to delay the construction of desperately needed facilities.
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Debate over Cairns Hospital’s helipad has spun out of control as the Member for Cairns accuses the LNP of using the controversial landing site to delay construction on desperately needed services.
Last month, the state government announced that it would “pause” building a four-theatre, 32-bed surgical centre in Cairns before it had even started, following an independent review into the state’s health infrastructure.
The LNP’s three Far North-based MPs have argued that the current helipad, located on the Cairns Esplanade, is “dangerous”, with all works on the hospital halted, in part, due to the lack of a suitable alternative site.
“You just can’t plan the hospital expansion and put the helipad anywhere,” Member for Mulgrave, Terry James, said recently. “It has to be factored into the overall design.”
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service has proposed relocating the helipad to the top of a hospital building as a solution.
But Member for Cairns, Michael Healy, has argued that placing the helipad onto a roof would take three years “at a bare minimum”, with more beds and new amenities needed now.
“We need to have what was planned,” Mr Healy said. “You cannot start talking about helipads until you put this other infrastructure in place.”
It is understood that none of Cairns Hospital’s current buildings are suitable for a helipad and a new building is considered to be the best option for the essential infrastructure.
“I just find it remarkable that they (the LNP) have made an issue out of this,” Mr Healy said.
“You’ve got to build the hospital first before you can put the chopper on the roof.”
Advancing construction on outstanding projects would create a potential alternative landing site, Mr Healy said.
“If you look at the helipads where they are sitting on top of hospitals, access to theatres is pretty quick,” Mr Healy said.
“You need to have access to those theatres because they’re extremely high-risk cases.
“As a growing city and region we’re looking after people coming in from Papua New Guinea, Cape York, the Gulf of Carpentaria.
“For northern Australia and the Pacific, we need to have four more surgical theatres and more beds.”
A spokesman for Health Minister Tim Nicholls said plans to build the surgical centre had stalled due to a $378m budget blowout under Labor.
“The previous Labor government did not proceed with the surgical centre due to their failure to allocate sufficient funding,” the spokesman said. “The project is being re-scoped as a key component of the Crisafulli government’s hospital rescue plan.”
Last week, the Cairns Post exclusively revealed an incident involving a toddler and the stroller it was inside being lifted into the air by the whirring blades of a rescue helicopter taking off outside Cairns Hospital.
Originally published as Helipad before the hospital: MP questions LNP’s priorities on health infrastructure
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