Satellite hospital struggles to find doctors as island fire highlights need for bayside medical care
The tragic deaths of five children after a fire on a bay island has highlighted calls for better medical services for the islands ahead of a soon-to-open satellite hospital at the island ferry terminal.
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The tragic deaths of five children after a fire on a bay island this month have highlighted calls for more services for bay island residents.
Redlands Satellite Hospital, due to open in Redland Bay this month, is the closest medical facility to the islands, where six people tragically died early last Sunday.
But the $78.9 million hospital, designed to pick up slack from the busy Redland Hospital, will not cater for emergencies such as the fatal fire that gutted the Russell Island community.
Three people were taken to hospital in Brisbane and nine treated at the site with the ambulance boat transferring three patients from the fire and ferrying staff to the island.
The islands’ new Medicat, a water ambulance launched in August, was not operational on the weekend.
Queensland College of GPs chair and Redland doctor Bruce Willett said the satellite hospital had merit but would not be for useful for island emergencies such as the recent fire.
He said the satellite hospital was an “expensive model of care” and it would have been a better option to have built the medical facility on the islands, rather than at Redland Bay, more than 8km from Russell Island via ferry.
“Emergency department visits cost the taxpayer, on average, an estimated $600 to $800 per patient,” Dr Willett said.
“I would hope that a visit to the satellite hospital will cost less per patient, but it is still likely to be many times more than the $41 cost to the taxpayer from a GP visit.
“I think the Russell Island tragedy shows the need for more services on the islands rather than across the water.
“The satellite hospital at Redland Bay is great for the Redlands – as it will offer much-needed services such as chemotherapy chairs and dialysis.
“I am so grateful for this, and so are my patients, but it is not the best and most effective way to provide after-hours services that could be provided at a local GP clinic or with enhanced services at the Redland Hospital Emergency department.
“It will not provide emergency department services, nor will it have a CAT scanner so its role will be limited.
“Local GP clinics will still close at 6pm and because of the way Medicare is structured, it is not financially viable for them to remain open at night.
“This will mean patients will still have to go to Redland Hospital, where there is an emergency department and doctors, which defeats the purpose of the satellite, which will not really take pressure off the emergency department.”
The satellite hospital will also not have facilities for sedations and anaesthetics procedures, which will have to be conducted at Redland Hospital.
Dr Willett said he expected the satellite facility “would rapidly get over burdened” and experience a budget blow out with a staff of locum GPs demanding higher rates of pay than those at bulk billing suburban practices.
He said patients who presented just before closing would likely be sent to Redlands Hospital depending on the nature of the case.
Less than three weeks out from opening, the hospital was struggling to recruit general practitioners.
Job ads for the new Redlands Satellite Hospital, due for a soft opening on August 19, showed more than 12 shifts for general practitioners for the first month of operating were still not filled.
The ads, published on an online specialist medical recruitment website called for GPs to fill 12 shifts in September, offering $1800 for each of the 10.5-hour shifts.
Two shift times are on offer with the first starting at 7.30am running to 6pm and the other shift block from 12.30pm to 11pm.
The facility will close each night at 10pm, which raised concerns from doctors who questioned how patients who presented minutes before closing would be treated.
The satellite hospital’s website said it would provide “walk-in urgent care” for up to 70 patients a day for those with “an emergency presentation but not a life-threatening emergency”.
It will include a minor injury and illness clinic and other specialist services including a Cancer Day Therapy Unit and Kidney Dialysis Unit.
According to the Australian Taxation Department, a typical day rate for a suburban GP is $1200 up to $1600 if a doctor sees more patients or has done procedural work, while locum GPs are earning close to $3000 a day.
General Practitioners Registrars Australia data showed annual base pay rates for full-time GPs ranged from (GPT1) $78,380.60 to $94,234.20 for level 2 and $100,643.80 for level 4 with superannuation above 10 per cent, up from 9.5 per cent in 2020/21.
Not all the doctors at the facility will have Emergency Department advanced skills with the advertisements calling for “qualified medical professionals”.
Queensland Health defended the satellite hospital funding model describing it as a mix of activity-based funding and block funding dependent on care provided, location and type of facility.
A Queensland Health spokesman said recruitment for the Redland Bay facility was nearing completion with the first staff nurses already prepared for an open day on August 19.
The spokesman said no patient would be turned away and there was a 5.5 hour overlap in shifts to allow for late patient presentations.
“Staff have been rostered past the closing time to ensure patients can be seen,” the spokesman said.
“All shifts adhere to the relevant award criteria, industrial agreements and include breaks.
“The minor injury and illness clinic will be staffed by our healthcare team, which includes qualified medical practitioners who will be rostered for either a morning or afternoon shift.”
The Redlands Minor Injury and Illness Clinic will be open from 8am to 10pm, every day, including public holidays.
It has six patient bays, a resuscitation area and three consultation rooms.
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