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By HARRY CLARKE
THE announcement that a notoriously troubled rural hospital will be completely rebuilt, and the offical start of construction at two other new rural health facilities, is being welcomed by opposition MPs who say designated housing will be also crucial in addressing rural health workforce shortages.
A $150 million spending spree by Queensland Health’s Darling Downs division will include a rebuild of the Chinchilla Hospital, which is approaching 2,000 days of maternity “bypass” according to Callide MP Bryson Head.
Construction has now officially begun with ceremonial sod-turnings last week at the new $22.6 million Tara Hospital and $28.5 million Millmerran Multipurpose Health Service Facility. The government also recently announced an upgrade to the Jandowae Hospital.
WATCH: Sod-turning at new $22.6 million Tara Hospital
“I certainly welcome the announcement of any investment in healthcare in my community and rural Queensland in general, but it’s certainly been an overdue announcement,” Bryson Head said.
“There’s been problems at the Chinchilla Hospital for many years now and those problems have certainly contributed to the fact that Chinchilla still doesn’t have a maternity service.
“The government has claimed that the maternity service has been on bypass, and yet it’s been on bypass for many years which suggests to me that it’s closed.”
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Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the new Chinchilla Hospital would provide emergency and inpatient services, specialist surgical services and community health and outreach services.
No promises have been made with regard to Chinchilla’s struggling maternity service, which made headlines in 2022 when a local mother was forced to give birth on the side of the Warrego Highway after being directed by staff to travel to Dalby.
“The new Chinchilla Hospital will be a gamechanger for this rapidly growing community,” Fentiman said.
“Making sure Queenslanders in every corner of our state have access to world class healthcare is a top priority for the Miles Government.”
“It’s fantastic that our significant investment towards Chinchilla will also create local jobs during construction and attract more medical professionals to the region,” Fentiman said.
Construction of the new hospital, which will be built at the same Slesser St site as the existing hospital, is scheduled to begin early next year.
Upgrades to hospitals at Laidley, Boonah, Moranbah, Cow Bay and Jandowae have also been announced under the government’s $1 billion Building Rural and Remote Health Program.
Bryson Head, whose electorate of Callide also includes Bileola where the local hospital has reached 550 days of maternity bypass, said funding to house healthcare workers was also essential.
“Part of the problem is there hasn’t been enough investment in rural health care and these facilities to encourage staff to stay there,” he said.
“Everywhere needs more accommodation, so I certainly encourage the government to consider gaps in housing for staff and ensure that that’s addressed with any new allocation of funds.”
The new Tara Hospital development will include nine units to accommodate nursing staff and a four-bedroom house for medical and clinical staff.
Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service chairman Mike Horan said the new facility provide emergency care, palliative care, a 12-bed inpatient unit, and adult mental health, clinical and outreach services.
“I think it well help us not only with the retention of staff but also the attraction of staff at the Tara Hospital,” Horan said.
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“Just attracting doctors to some of our towns has been difficult and we have a real issue with workforce, but in the Darling downs we have kept all of our hospitals going through the use of locums. It’s incredibly expensive but we’ve been able to do it.
“In a way, the locum system is somewhat mirroring what happens in the mining industry, where people used to live and work in the communities and now there’s a tendency for people to want to live somewhere else and do two weeks on, one week off.
Speaking at the Tara Hospital sod-turning, Warrego MP Ann Leahy said addressing healthcare shortages in rural and regional areas would help to fix problems that were plaguing Queensland Health in the cities.
“It’s fantastic to see. This has been a project that I’ve been pushing for quite some time,” Leahy said of the Tara Hospital redevelopment.
“It’s really interesting to learn that because of the consultation that I pushed for with the local petitioners here in Tara, that they are able to get really important staff housing on site at the hospital with the redevelopment.
“That is a real game changer because we know that we’ve got those workforce challenges across there regions. It just makes it so much easier to attract staff to new facilities like this.
“I don’t think that regional health has been in the lights as much as it should be, but it means so much for actually dealing with the log jams that happen further down with ambulance ramping and things like that in Brisbane and Toowoomba.
“If we fix those problems and don’t have people having to go down to those communities, then we take the pressure off those major hospitals. That’s why things like CT scanners are so important in rural areas.”