Alabaster House: Health Department urged to save patient accommodation facilities

A couple who support patients travelling to Townsville for medical care are seeking government help to ensure their housing facilities remain open after they retire.

Robyn Girdler and Traeger MP Robbie Katter outside Alabaster House in Townsville. Alabaster House has 29 bedrooms distributed across six houses and accommodate, on average, 40 patients every night. Picture: Supplied

A selfless couple who have dedicated their lives to support patients travelling to Townsville for medical treatment are seeking government help to ensure their essential housing facilities remain open after they retire.

Robyn and Graham Girdler operate Alabaster House, which provides a “lifeline of support” to patients travelling from the Gulf.

Mrs Girdler said there were few accommodation options in Townsville that provided the same services as Alabaster House.

“We provide fully self-contained accommodation in a safe and secure environment, as well as assisting with transport, getting them to their medical appointments, collecting medication and food parcels.”

Alabaster House has 29 bedrooms distributed across six houses and accommodate, on average, 40 people every night.

Alabaster House in Townsville. Picture: Supplied

Traeger MP Robbie Katter said the Girdlers support of those in need could soon come to an end.

He said that after 16 years of tireless service, the Girdlers were looking forward to retirement but “until sustainable and ongoing funding is secured, they are being forced to choose between delaying their future or watching the services at Alabaster House end”.

“Unlike in Brisbane where it seems like there is a hospital around every corner, to obtain specialist hospital care, we in the North-West of the state often need to travel more than 1000km to Townsville,” he said.

“I hear all too often about people being forced to upend their lives, or worse still, choose to give up their treatment altogether to stay at home rather than be admitted in a hospital ward for days on end away from their support system.”

The leader of Katter’s Australian Party said the services provided by Alabaster House represented a direct saving to the Queensland Government, enabling it to treat users as out-patients.

The Health Department have been contacted for comment.

Mr Katter said that if the service did not exist, “you would be into the tens of millions of dollars for a government institutional-type facility to provide the same.”

“For years now Queensland Health has been all too happy to benefit from the Girdler’s thankless work,” he said.

“With their well-deserved retirement coming up it is about time Queensland Health stump up to provide ongoing funds to keep services ongoing at Alabaster House under a new operator.”

Originally published as Alabaster House: Health Department urged to save patient accommodation facilities