Qld politics: Hospital patients still being housed in hotels

Despite claiming it was a symptom of Labor’s underinvestment in health, the LNP has persisted with a controversial practice.

The Mantra at Southport on the Gold Coast

Sick Queenslanders are still being housed in hotel rooms under a multimillion-dollar contract, despite the LNP government’s criticism of the move before winning the election.

It can be revealed the government has expanded its contract with its provider KNG Health, in a move that has split Queensland’s peak medical and nurses body.

The state government has a standing $14m contract with KNG to provide 27 beds at the Mantra in Southport on the Gold Coast, which otherwise costs on average between $200 and $300 a night.

This contract is ongoing under the LNP government, despite while in Opposition criticising the initiative as a symptom of the former Labor government’s failure to invest in health system infrastructure.

During Parliament in 2023, Ros Bates asked then health minister Shannon Fentiman, “Has the situation become so dire in Queensland Health that hospital beds are now being replaced with hotel beds,” after patients were being cared for in hotel rooms at the Sea World Resort.

This was then followed by now Housing Minister Sam O’Connor who asked “if it was acceptable that Queenslanders ... were receiving care in a hotel instead of in a hospital”.

The $14m initiative to treat semi-acute patients in hotel rooms was first trialled in 2023 by Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service to improve bed flow amid a bed shortage.

A room at the Mantra

Now called Parkwood Low Acuity Accommodation, the facility has patients cared for by doctors and nurses 24 hours a day, with more than 1287 admitted so far.

A second 55-bed low-acuity facility opened in Nerang at the beginning of the year, but is understood to be aimed at elderly patients.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Nick Yim said while it was not a perfect solution, the ongoing crisis in the state’s hospitals may see the need for more medi-hotels or low acuity accommodation.

“The necessity of this initiative comes down to the chronic underfunding and lack of investment in healthcare for decades,” Dr Yim said.

“The state government has committed to an expansion program that considers both infrastructure and workforce concurrently, making initiatives like Medi-hotels more likely to serve as medium- rather than short-term solutions.”

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union Secretary Sarah Beaman said it was a short-term solution and cannot form part of a long-term trend.

“The introduction or expansion of long-term or permanent private public arrangements within (Queensland Health) hospitals and health services would create an unacceptable two-tiered system for Queensland’s public patients,” Ms Beaman said.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls did not directly respond to relevant questions, but said the government's Hospital Rescue Plan would provide more beds across the Gold Coast.

Originally published as Qld politics: Hospital patients still being housed in hotels