New Toowoomba Hospital: Calls grow louder for funding in state budget

As the calls for a new Toowoomba Hospital grow louder, there is one system medical professionals have called the ‘stone age’ – and it highlights why a new facility is badly needed.

Artist impressions of the new Toowoomba Hospital at the site of the old Baillie Henderson Hospital site.

Five years after its announcement, multiple patient records have been broken and pleas from the health industry have only grown louder.

But Toowoomba still has no funding for a new hospital.

Residents say they have witnessed first-hand the difficulties of a hospital “bursting at the seams” and the challenges it presents to its hardworking staff.

Today The Chronicle, along with industry figures and local politicians, are calling on the state government to confirm funding for the new health precinct it announced back in 2017 but has yet to fully commit to in dollars.

Darling Downs Health chair Mike Horan said the organisation was ready to proceed with the final plans, pending funding in the state budget on June 21.

Mr Horan said DDH made a presentation to the state cabinet in late March and was “hopeful” to see funding announced this year.

3D renderings of the proposed Toowoomba Hospital at the Baillie Henderson campus.

“We don’t know what will be in the budget — we have had a busy six months in detailed negotiations with Queensland Health, I had a delegation to cabinet in late March,” he said.

“We’re hopeful it will be in (the budget) — we’ve been given every opportunity to do detailed negotiations and do a strong presentation, and we’re grateful for that.”

The announcement

The state government announced plans were in motion to replacing the ageing hospital on Pechey Street back in 2017, and provided $3 million in the budget that year for preliminary planning.

The money was to decide on the first major issue – whether the new health precinct would be built on the site of the current hospital, or if the development would utilise available land at the Baillie Henderson Hospital.

The following year, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and former Health Minister Steven Miles travelled back up the range with more promising news about the proposal – the site had been chosen.

The new hospital would be built at the Baillie Henderson site, and an additional $6 million had been allocated for detailed designs.

Those designs were released to the public for consultation back in 2020, and the business case has now been completed.

But since then, the state government has failed to provide any concrete update as to when the facility would be fully funded.

A spokesman for Treasurer Cameron Dick was tight-lipped, saying all details of the budget would be revealed on June 21.

While the state has not agreed to fully fund the plans as yet, work has started on a $42 million two-theatre day surgery at the Baillie Henderson site.

This week The Chronicle revealed work had also started on a $10 million upgrade and expansion of the current emergency department.

But it’s just a temporary fix.

Dr Ben Wakefield, a Darling Downs GP and the area representative of the Australian Medical Association Queensland, said the ED expansion was only a short-term solution.

“If you read between the lines (of Mr Horan’s comments), that expansion has got a five-year time limit on it, so even they’re aware (it is only short term),” he said.

3D renderings of the proposed Toowoomba Hospital at the Baillie Henderson campus.

Dr Wakefield said the funding needed to be announced this year to ensure no further delays.

“Even if it’s actioned in the next budget, it will take it five years before patients are being seen in the next hospital,” he said.

“It’s definitely needed, the old one is outdated, I believe we’re next in line so it should be one of the top priorities of the state government.”

Growing issues

Calls for a new hospital have grown louder since the facility’s initial announcement, spurred on by surging patient numbers.

Data from MyHospitals shows the number of presentations to the emergency department that were considered an emergency surged from just over 3000 in 2011-12 to more than 10,000 in 2020-21.

Urgent presentations to the ED have jumped from more than 16,000 to more than 34,000 in the same time span.

AMA Queensland’s Dr Kim Hansen in 2021 described emergency departments as the “canary in the coalmine” that bore the burden when other parts of the system were over capacity.

Even in this time, demand for the emergency department has continued to grow.

Earlier this year, photos emerged of patients sitting on the floor of emergency.

At that time, executive director Shirley-Anne Gardiner said the hospital was seeing “unprecedented demand” for services.

Old infrastructure

Capacity and staffing problems aren’t the only reasons to support a new hospital.

Dr Wakefield pointed out the current site was one of the only hospitals in Queensland that still used paper charts – something other medical professionals have labelled the “stone age”.

“The current hospital has an outdated infrastructure regarding its IT, they tried to update the IT a while ago, but it was going to cost so much they pulled the pin,” he said.

“It’s one of the only ones in Queensland that doesn’t use electronic records – they’re still using paper charts.”

The plans

The reportedly $1.6 billion plans aren’t just to create a hospital at the Baillie Henderson site, but an entire health precinct for Toowoomba and the Darling Downs.

The design (pictured above), which was open to the public for input, includes a cancer care centre, an acute mental health building and dedicated spaces for automated vehicles that can transport goods around the precinct.

The Toowoomba Hospital master plan.

The Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise has previously said the project could generate up to 4000 jobs for the wider region.

Toowoomba mayor Paul Antonio said the city deserved a new hospital to fuel its biggest industry by employment.

“It’s the biggest employer we have, we’ve been beautifully serviced by the public and private hospitals, and we’re at that stage where it’s time for the state government to fund this,” he said.

“It’s critical, when you see our hospitals working well over their capacity and the impact it has on service delivery, we desperately need it and need it now.”

Originally published as New Toowoomba Hospital: Calls grow louder for funding in state budget