Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital plagued by problems since it was announced nearly a decade ago

THE children’s hospital was plagued by problems before it opened, with costs rising and beds declining since it was promised by former premier Peter Beattie nearly a decade ago.

Open day at Lady Cilento ChildrenÕs Hospital, South Brisbane. Pic Mark Cranitch.

QUEENSLAND sickest kids will get world-class care at the largest children’s hospital in Australia, then-premier Peter Beattie promised two weeks before the 2006 state election.

The $700 million super-hospital would have 400 beds, be open by 2014 and would centralise paediatric services in the southeast, he promised.

“The advice from the best medical minds in the world is if you have a stand-alone children’s hospital you get better care,” he said.

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Fast forward nine years and the newly opened Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital is in crisis.

It cost more than double what was forecast – $1.5 billion – but for that extra money has 100 fewer beds than promised.

Following its opening on November 29, 2014, problems quickly started to appear.

Parents of seriously ill children were making complaints within weeks about inadequate food and transport facilities.

These issues were dismissed by hospital heavyweights and then-health minister Lawrence Springborg as “teething problems”.

But an audit into the hospital’s opening would confirm the concerns of parents and clinicians that the hospital had been rushed open.

Since then the complaints have been mounting. Bed and staff shortages, elective surgeries being cancelled, lack of parking, administrative errors and stressed doctors leading to reports of significant staff turnover.

But the warning signs were there long before the opening.

It was the Forster Review in 2005 that recommended merging the Royal Children’s and the Mater Children’s Hospital. A similar recommendation came out the following year from the Mellis Review. After an initial cool reaction from Beattie, who said the Mater Children’s would be closed “over my dead body”, the decision was made to merge the two facilities into one bigger, better hospital.

By the time then-premier Anna Bligh was to hand down her first Budget in June 2008 the hospital’s cost had blown out to $1.1 billion. That same year the Opposition confronted then-health minister Stephen Robertson with a leaked ministerial briefing, which prophetically revealed the true cost of the hospital could reach $1.5 billion.

Former premier Anna Bligh looks at plans for the hospital. By 2008 its cost had blown out to $1.1 billion.

In a sign of the political handling to come, Robertson dismissed the figure by saying it only applied if everything about the hospital was “gold standard”.

By 2009 questions were being raised over design issues, whether the hospital would be able to deliver the promised number of beds and whether the research facilities would be up to scratch.

Worried medicos were raising concerns over bed numbers as the number dropped from the 400 promised to 359 – only 71 more than what was available at Royal Children’s and Mater Children’s combined.

In 2011 then-opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle talked of keeping the Royal Children’s Hospital open. But under the Newman government, which took power the following year, the single children’s hospital continued as planned.

A year out from opening, the Australian Medical Association Queensland sought to meet with Springborg and health officials.

AMAQ’s president at the time, Dr Christian Rowan, now the LNP MP for Moggill, sent a letter to then-premier Campbell Newman saying the meetings were to “reiterate the critical importance of well-planned, appropriately funded and broadly communicated transition arrangements for doctors and patients”.

Former Health minister Lawrence Springborg dismissed early complaints as “teething problems”.

Then, one month prior to opening, an auditor-general’s report came down blaming planning by the Beattie government for cost blowouts.

But it also showed that the 359 beds promised, a figure already revised down, would actually be closer to 288. It was the same amount as already offered by the Royal and Mater children’s hospitals.

The extra 71 beds would be there on opening, but there would not be the staff to service them. There were assurances from the hospital this would be sufficient to meet needs. Documents obtained under Right To Information showed the children’s hospital was in trouble before it even opened its doors to patients in November and the staff all knew it.

An October risk report from paediatric staff contained warnings “time is now critical” and “staff do not yet feel safe”.

Critical training for staff to familiarise them with the facilities was delayed and questions were raised as to whether there was enough time for mock trials to identify defects.

There was enough evidence as early as June that the hospital’s November opening should be delayed, according to a report into the commissioning of the hospital released by the Palaszczuk Government in August.

Health Minister Cameron Dick with Children’s Health Queensland Health Service chief executive Fionnagh Dougan. Picture: Jack Tran

“Many staff expressed and displayed a level of stress built up from the sustained continuing level of challenges and frustrations experienced,” the report stated.

“Limited time and availability of sufficient resources saw the ICT program, consumer engagement, staff training and orientation and management of furniture, fixtures and equipment significantly curtailed.”

Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service Board, the report found, insisted on keeping to the November 29, 2014 opening date, “despite repeated, revised forecast practical completion dates”.

Lady Cilento has been on the defensive ever since it opened. Early on it defended against reports children were being turned away from surgery.

Children’s Health Queensland Health Service chief executive Fionnagh Dougan confirmed in June nine elective surgeries had to be cancelled in May, which coincided with an email being sent to staff warning the hospital was at capacity.

In recent weeks it has faced a chorus of critics, both parents and doctors, culminating in Health Minister Cameron Dick’s $70 million pledge for 31 more beds.

But AMAQ’s president Zelle Hodge summed it up in 2006 when, with uncanny foresight, she urged caution at the promise of a super-hospital.

“We are still seeing decisions on politics, not good health policy,” she said. “We believe there has not been sufficient consultation with clinicians involved with looking after sick children.”

It would seem politics has caused the sickness at the hospital and now, if possible, it has to be the cure.

Email Matthew Killoran