Hospital takes Christmas break

GYMPIE Private Hospital has momentarily dropped its round-the-clock care to join the list of businesses closing their doors over the Christmas period.

CLOSED: Gympie Private Hospital, Channon St, is closed for two weeks over the Christmas period. Picture: Patrick Woods

GYMPIE Private Hospital has momentarily dropped its round-the-clock care to join the list of businesses closing their doors over the Christmas period.

The 40-bed surgical hospital, run by Pulse Health, closed for two weeks on Friday; allowing some renovation work to be carried out, according to hospital staff.

Saving on staff expenses was one rumoured suggestion for the closure, but Pulse Health managing director Phillipa Blake said it was not abnormal for a hospital of its type to close at this time of year.

"It's not unusual for private hospitals to close over Christmas," she told The Gympie Times.

The smaller hospitals that specialise in surgery cannot offer surgery at a time surgeons and anaesthetists take leave.

She said the decision to shut for a fortnight had been based on last year's patient

figures for the same period.

"The numbers were so low that it was very evident that it didn't make sense to keep open this year," she said.

Mrs Blake could not confirm if any patients needed moving from the Channon St  hospital when it closed, but said no new admissions were taken in the lead-up to the two-week break, so the likelihood of patients having to be transferred was slim.

She said most patients were only admitted to Gympie Private Hospital for a few days, but if any were unexpectedly staying longer they would have been transferred to Gympie's public hospital.

She said Gympie Private Hospital staff had taken paid leave, except any casually employed staff.

It is hard to conceive the hospital, which began life in 1925 as a "lying in hospital" in Nash St, would have previously closed its doors during holidays, particularly when it increased to 40 beds plus a maternity wing in the 1940s.

But business is business.

Pulse Health, who acquired the hospital in 2009, now offers ophthalmology, ear nose and throat surgery, general surgery, diagnostic endoscopy, urology, gynaecology, orthopaedic, cosmetic, plastics and dental surgery.

The Gold Coast Surgical Hospital, another of several surgical, private and rehabilitation hospitals owned by the company throughout Queensland and New South Wales, is also shut over the Christmas period.

Cooroy's Pulse Health Eden Rehabilitation Hospital will remain open, with Gympie Private Hospital opening on January 4.