Rebranding hospital won’t bring in extra grants, Nobel laureate tells Palaszczuk

Peter Doherty has disputed a claim that the name Queensland in itself could land rich research grants for medical staff.

Lady Cilento.

Nobel laureate Peter Doherty has disputed a claim by the Queensland Premier that the state’s name in itself could land rich research grants for medical staff agitating to rebrand Brisbane’s main children’s hospital.

Annastacia Palaszczuk insists the controversial renaming of the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital will attract international funding because “it has the word Queensland” in it.

But Professor Doherty questioned whether calling it the Queensland Children’s Hospital could reap the benefits she touted, as Ms Palaszczuk’s government came under more pressure yesterday over an alleged attempt to manipulate public opinion in favour of the name change.

“The Premier may have had feedback from researchers, but I would have thought that any effect would be minimal,” said Professor Doherty, a joint winner of the 1996 Nobel prize for medicine. “Where it might have some impact is regarding funds dispersed directly from a Labor government, but even most politicians would look beyond the name.”

Rebranding the $1.2 billion hospital, opened in 2014 under the Liberal National Party government headed by Campbell Newman, has angered relatives of medical pioneer Phyllis Cilento who say it is disrespectful to her memory. They have joined state Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington in demanding an investigation into the online opinion poll conducted through a government website that came out strongly in support of the name change.

This follows the revelation by The Australian that an IP address used by staff of Health Minister Steven Miles and possibly those in other ministerial offices appeared to match the network identity number of the computer or computers that lodged 75 yes votes.

It was among the redacted IP addresses extracted in a Right to Information application by Nine News, showing that nearly 80 per cent of the 23,000 yes votes emanated from 74 internet hosts. Further breakdown showed that 6269 of these votes had come from just four IP addresses.

Dr Miles has admitted “it was probably true” the 75 yes votes were from a Queensland government ministerial office, though he could not say which one because they all shared two IP addresses.

But an extensive search of IP addresses used in emailed correspondence from a range of ministerial offices found that Dr Miles’s office alone matched the last six digits of the IP number in question. “It is clear Steven Miles is at the epicentre of this voting rort. He should be sacked and an investigation into other ministerial offices’ voting in the survey should be conducted,” Ms Frecklington said yesterday.

Having argued initially that the name change was necessary because people didn’t realise the hospital was public, and citing the online poll as further justification, the government now says doctors have complained of missing out on research grants and opportunities to present their work because the Cilento “brand” is not known internationally. “They wanted the brand of Queensland in the name of their hospital,” Dr Miles said on Monday.

Echoing him, Ms Palaszczuk said: “We should be proud of the name Queensland in there, because what that name does is it means we can attract funding, international funding, into the hospital because it has the word Queensland in it.”

Professor Doherty agreed the new name was a better fit for a public hospital.