New outpatient facility opens at Hervey Bay Hospital

It will improve the waiting room experience for women and children and relieve pressure on the existing Specialist Outpatients clinic.

Administration officer Sarah is one of the friendly faces who will be greeting patients as they arrive in the new Women's/Children's Outpatients clinic area at Hervey Bay Hospital. Photo: Contributed

Hervey Bay Hospital has now opened a new outpatient clinic area.

The area is for specifically for paediatric, maternity and gynaecology patients and Wide Bay Hospital and Health Board Chair Peta Jamieson said she was excited to see the new family friendly area open to the public.

“As part of our strategic plan, Care Comes First … Through Patients’ Eyes, we’re constantly looking for ways not only to build our capacity but also to improve the patient experience and respond to consumer feedback,” Ms Jamieson said.

“With the shift of our education and training team and facilities to the new emergency department building, it gave us a good central space that we could repurpose for another use.

New medical facilities at Hervey Bay Hospital's new outpatient clinic area. Photo: Contributed

“We’ve been able to turn that former education area into this great new facility, which will not only improve comfort, privacy and the waiting room experience for women and children, but will also relieve pressure on the existing Specialist Outpatients clinic.

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service Chief Executive Debbie Carroll said the new clinic area was partly in response to consumer feedback, and she was pleased Hervey Bay Hospital could deliver this service enhancement for local women and families.

“We’ve received fairly consistent feedback from women and parents over time that they wanted to attend their outpatient appointments in a place that was separate from the general Specialist Outpatients clinic area,” Ms Carroll said.

“We always take that feedback seriously. As a result, this is a project we’ve been planning for some time, and have now been able to implement it as a follow-on from the completion of some of our other recent significant infrastructure projects.

Ms Carroll said the opening of the Women’s and Children’s outpatient area was just one of several infrastructure projects ongoing in 2021 in Hervey Bay such as progressing construction on the new 22-bed mental health acute inpatient unit at the Hervey Bay Hospital.

Originally published as