Health chiefs dodge questions about local hospital changes

The region’s health chiefs have given Hervey Bay’s business community a five-year glimpse at the future of health care in the Wide Bay

The region's health chiefs have given Hervey Bay's business community a five-year glimpse at the future of health care in the Wide Bay.

In yesterday's monthly breakfast meeting, the February gathering was centred on the redevelopment of the Bundaberg Hospital into a Level 5.

"All of the wonderful technological advances that we have ... that will be a huge part of the design," Wide Bay Hospital and Health Board's Executive Committee Chair Peta Jamieson said.

"As we know, a new hospital will result in significant economic benefits for across the region, not just Bundaberg ... And there are some figures around that... have been projected in terms of economic boost."

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Board’s Executive Committee Chair Peta Jamieson spoke of the “shiny” Bundaberg hospital. Picture: Isabella Magee

 

 

 

Despite talk of the "shiny brand new hospital" during the breakfast gathering, some were left with a bitter taste and served up some controversial questions to the health chiefs.

 

Longtime local doctor Paul Neeskens questioned why Hervey Bay wasn't also being elevated to Level 5 status given the population.

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Services Chief Executive Officer Deborah Carroll dodged a direct response.

"To go to a level five ICU, for example, it is not just ICU that needs to go to level five, you have to have other services, medicine, radiology, imaging ... it's a complex beast, so to speak, and it determines the level of services you can provide," Ms Carroll said.

She went on to compare Bundaberg with Hervey Bay.

"And, actually, geriatric services are higher level in Maryborough, and we don't have a geriatric service in Bundaberg.

"But we don't meet the capability at this point in time for ICU level five (in Hervey Bay) because there's many other areas you'd have to look at."

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Services Chief Executive Officer Deborah Carroll was met with some questions on Wednesday morning, some she didn’t have answers to. Picture: Isabella Magee

Ms Carroll was also asked when many of the new beds, which remain unused since the opening of the new Hervey Bay hospital emergency department in 2019, would be put to use.

"So we do flex the beds now, I can tell you that we've got all our surgical beds and medical beds open," Ms Carroll said.

"So it does depend on the staffing ... we've got to make some decisions about ongoing staffing of those beds."

Ms Carroll then went on later to talk about how Hervey Bay's relative job vacancy issues were non-existent.

"We have the least number of (job) positions (available) in nursing ... (job) vacancies are able to be filled," she said.

"In some specialties, you may have more difficulties than others but we don't have any (job) vacancy issues."

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