Tony Perrett weighs in on Gympie Hospital Children’s Ward closure

Loss of services at Gympie Hospital ED and surgery are also raising alarm bells with doctors, and Gympie MP Tony Perrett says all questions about the reduction in health services are being met with ‘secrecy and cover-ups’

Gympie MP Tony Perrett sas claims the hospital’s Children’s Ward has been shut only add to a lengtehing list of concerns about the state of the region’s health centre, with answers few and far between.

Reports the Gympie Hospital’s Children’s Ward has been closed are just the latest in a growing list of concerns being flagged about the state of the region’s health services, Gympie MP Tony Perrett said on Monday.

Mr Perrett said he had been contacted many times by people worried about a potential drop in – or the outright removal of – services from the region’s health hub.

Fears about the Children’s Ward’s fate and the redistribution of its staff have been raised with The Gympie Times, but questions to the Sunshine Coast Health and Hospital Board failed to clarify the situation or put those fears to rest.

The SCHHS declined to answer questions about staffing at the Children’s Ward and if there was a limit to how long children needing non-emergency treatment could stay, instead highlighting that paediatric patients (children) continued to be treated on site, including through “outpatient and targeted bed-based services”.

However “children requiring specialist paediatric care are transferred to Sunshine Coast University Hospital,” a spokesman for the SCHHS said.

Gympie children needing specialist paediatric care are transferred to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH).

The Gympie Times asked Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath for clarity about the Ward but did not receive a response by deadline.

Mr Perrett said the claims added to an ever-lengthening list of questions about local health services.

“ I received a delegation of local doctors concerned about the reduction in surgeries at Gympie Hospital and the loss of specialist services,” Mr Perrett said.

“Others have raised concerns about the reduction in services at the Emergency Department.

“At the Gympie Show, members of the medical profession came up to me at my stand raising more concerns.

“This can’t keep going on.”

And getting answers to those questions was becoming its own problem, he said.

“Whenever you ask a question, you are met with secrecy and cover-ups, or stalling.

Mr Perrett says a review of the region’s health services due in February last year has still yet to be released.

“In March, I requested a meeting with the Sunshine Coast Health and Hospital Board.

“They agreed to meet but still cannot give me a time.

“It can’t be that hard.

“The review of Gympie and the Cooloola Coast’s health care needs was due in February last year.

“We’ve seen nothing.”

Last week in parliament Mr Perrett asked Ms D’Ath when the review would be finished in a question on notice.

“Last year the Minister said it was because of COVID yet the review should have been completed before COVID.,” he said.

“The Master Clinical Service Plan was due for completion by late last year with phase one in March 2020.

“A year later and still nothing.

“It’s not as if the Government doesn’t know people are concerned.”

Originally published as Tony Perrett weighs in on Gympie Hospital Children’s Ward closure