Rundown Cooktown hospital a priority as LNP works to deliver on ‘rescue’ plan
Desperately needed services at Cooktown hospital will be restored with health minister Tim Nicholls pledging to put an end to the “years of neglect” the community has endured during a visit to southern Cape York this week.
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Desperately needed services at Cooktown hospital will be restored with health minister Tim Nicholls pledging to put an end to the “years of neglect” the community has endured during a visit to southern Cape York this week.
Mr Nicholls met with concerned staff and regional leaders in Cooktown and Hope Vale on Thursday ahead of the multipurpose health centre’s $200m redevelopment set to start next year.
The closure of the hospital’s helipad late last year, forcing rescue helicopters to land at the town’s airport 20 minutes away, prompted public outcry earlier this week but the minister said a temporary solution could soon be identified.
The landing site was closed in part due to the risk of downdraught from the helicopters to a rundown tarpaulin covered building at the hospital.
“We’ve undertaken to do more work in relation to the tarpaulin,” Mr Nicholls said.
“The hospital and health service is looking at another solution to the tarp which involves a more solidly mounted sail-type structure.
“We’re going to look at that to see if it provides us with a better solution to the situation.”
The minister conceded that landing rescue helicopters at the airport and then driving patients to the hospital was a poor health outcome.
But he insisted that it was a result of Labor allowing the hospital to fall into a state of disrepair.
“We’ve experienced no adverse events but that doesn’t mean it’s a satisfactory outcome,” Mr Nicholls said. “It’s clearly not satisfactory. The hospital has been neglected for at least the last five years.”
Cook Shire mayor Robyn Holmes, who toured the hospital with the minister and Torres and Cape Hospital Health Service CEO Rex O’Rourke, said she appreciated the state government’s commitment to delivering improved health services in the Cape.
“The outcomes were really positive and there was a definite commitment around the redevelopment of the hospital and ensuring that the time frames we were provided remain on track,” Ms Holmes said.
Mr Nicholls praised hospital workers and Ms Holmes, whom he described as a “fierce advocate” for her community.
“It’s great staff working in constrained circumstances delivering outstanding outcomes, notwithstanding the fact that they are working in a 40-year-old facility that was never designed to have the life that it now has,” he said.
A new doctor has recently been appointed in Cooktown with nurses all based in the region currently.
“We have no LOCUM nursing staff in the hospital at the moment,” Mr Nicholls said.
“That’s been the case for the last three months which is a fantastic win.”
The LNP unveiled a statewide “hospital rescue plan” focused on infrastructure last month.
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