Mayor: New hospital ED a 20 year dream

‘What we have seen this morning is only a small fraction of how huge this new facility is.’

The Premier is speaking in the new $42 million Gladstone Hospital emergency department, which is set to open on August 5.

GLADSTONE Mayor Matt Burnett has toured the new $42 million emergency department at Gladstone Hospital with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, saying the city has got the facility it has been looking forward to.

The new facility fulfils a 20 year dream for the residents of the region, Cr Burnett said.

“Thank you Premier, every time you come to Gladstone you bring money,” Cr Burnett said.

“Thank you Butchy (Glenn Butcher) I know you have done a good job fighting for this.

“Gladstone has been looking forward to a new hospital for a number of years and I’d probably say it has gone on to two decades of how long we have been looking forward to this.

“What we have seen this morning is only a small fraction of how huge this new facility is.”

Cr Burnett also celebrated the 30 new jobs for the region associated with the ED.

“Another five million dollars going toward all those new nurses and doctors and medical staff and some specialists,” he said.

“I’ve spent some time in the emergency department recently, thank you Sandy (CQHHS Gladstone and Banana Executive Director) your team looked after me really well.

“Also I had a small minor procedure done in the Mater and its great to see the Mater and our Base working together.

“I can tell you that the best care happening in our region is here in Gladstone and its only going to get better with this new facility.

Along with the hospital, Cr Burnett said the government had delivered $5.2 million in COVID works funding.

“$5.2 million for COVID works thank you for that,” he said.

“We adopted our budget yesterday with that $5.2 million in there and we’ve also got about $27 million from the state and the feds for our capital projects.

“Our budget wouldn’t have been able to be a freeze yesterday without the support of your government.”

Ms Munro said the ED was a significant investment in the Gladstone community.

“This significant investment in the Gladstone community allows us to deliver the health services that we want for our community,” she said.

“It’s an amazing space that future proofs the Gladstone region for health services and we are really excited about opening on the fifth of August.”

The 30 new staff in the facility will be phased in over the next few months.

“The majority of the 30 new staff are local people, which is wonderful,” Premier Palaszczuk said.