Council To Vote On Running Hospital

20150921 Wayne Kratzmann — South Burnett mayor Wayne Kratzmann at this morning’s media conferece (Photo: SBRC)

September 21, 2015

Independent consultants will be hired by the South Burnett Regional Council to crunch the numbers ahead of a proposal for Council to take over running the South Burnett Private Hospital.

Mayor Wayne Kratzmann announced at a media conference on Monday morning that Council would apply to transfer the operating licence for the hospital from Pulse Health.

When this occurs, and Pulse Health had agreed in principle, it could re-open as a fully operating hospital as early as February 1 under a new management structure … if councillors approved the plan at their October meeting.

Council would hire a health specialist for the day-to-day running of the hospital, and would invite more health practitioners to take a role in a reinvigorated Management Board.

About 70 jobs were lost when the hospital stopped receiving patients on June 30.

However, Pulse Health agreed to keep the licence for the hospital active until September 30 to give Council 90 days to find a new operator to take over management.

Mayor Kratzmann said despite the best efforts of council staff and himself, no new operator had been found who was willing to take over the hospital before this deadline ran out.

He said Queensland Health had no issue with the licence being held in Council’s name, or with Council running the hospital as the provider.

“If the licence was to lapse, my view is that the hospital more than likely would never re-open,” Mayor Kratzmann said.

Mayor Kratzmann said Sydney-based Ernst & Young would be engaged to do due diligence of the South Burnett Private Hospital operation and provide a high level revenue and cost forecast model.

He said these consultants had a range of experience in the health and hospital sector including projects undertaken for the Royal Adelaide Hospital, St Vincent’s Hospital Darlinghurst, the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, and the Gold Coast District Hospital.

Mayor Kratzmann said he had spoken to all councillors about the proposal and was confident a majority would support the decision.

“This is a decision that Council is considering for the benefit of the South Burnett community,” Mayor Kratzmann said. “It is a commitment to the community, to health and to our residents’ lives.”

Mayor Kratzmann said he had warned that the General Hospital would not be able to cope if the Private Hospital closed.

“That statement has been seen to be true over the last six to eight weeks,” he said.

“The General Hospital has wonderful staff, wonderful doctors but with the antiquated facilities they’ve got, and now the over-crowding that they’ve got, they are really struggling to cope.”

He said would continue to lobby for a new General Hospital for Kingaroy, but there was also a role for a Private Hospital in Kingaroy.

He said Council was running out of time.

“We also cannot afford to lose visiting specialists, and if we wait much longer they will be gone,” he said.

Mayor Kratzmann said he would be calling a meeting of doctors and visiting specialists next week to discuss Council’s plan.

He believed there were a lot of grants that could be accessed to assist with the hospital.

“I will also investigate the formation of a fully-accredited Hospital Charity Status as another stream of revenue,” he said.

Mayor Kratzmann said he was willing to stay on the Board after March (when he retires from Council) – if they wanted him – and would offer his services on a voluntary basis to lead fund-raising for the hospital.

“There is a huge benefit to the region if the hospital stays open,” he said. “We can’t go backwards. We have to retain what we’ve got.”