The 22-bed South Burnett Private Hospital … a decision on its future will be made next week
SBRC Mayor Wayne Kratzmann
South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann (Photo: SBRC)

January 12, 2016

The South Burnett Regional Council will hold a special meeting next week to discuss the future of the South Burnett Private Hospital.

Councillors have been poring over a due diligence report on the facility prepared by consultants Ernst and Young.

It is expected the report will show the hospital has been profitable since it was acquired by Kingaroy Shire Council in 2002, except for the past two years when bed occupancy rates dwindled from a long-term average of 70 per cent to as low as 25 per cent

This led to former hospital managers Pulse Health incurring losses of $100,000 in 2013-14 and $170,000 in 2014-15.

Pulse Health stopped running the hospital on June 30 last year.

But when a week-long “Save Our Hospital” campaign to assess community feeling attracted almost 10,000 signatures to keep the hospital running, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann began a so-far fruitless search to find another operator to take it over.

In September, with the hospital’s licence about to expire, Council voted to investigate taking over the operation of the facility itself.

They engaged specialist health consultants from Ernst and Young to prepare a full due diligence report so Councillors could properly assess all options.

Mayor Kratzmann also negotiated with Queensland Health for an extension of the hospital’s licence.

The final report was delivered in mid-November, and in late November Mayor Kratzmann confirmed it suggested the hospital could be profitable again if it could achieve an average 50 per cent bed occupancy rate.

A decision on the matter had initially been expected at the December 9 meeting.

However, the issue was deferred at the last minute because a potential hospital operator emerged and expressed interest in inspecting the facility.

At next week’s special meeting, Councillors will decide which of several possible options they should pursue:

  • Take over the operation of the hospital, appoint an experienced medical administrator to run the facility, and task them with returning it to profitability as quickly as possible, or…
  • Keep the facility “as is” until another operator can be found to take it over, or …
  • Close the hospital down and look at other options to keep the building in use

The special meeting will be open to the public.

Update January 13, 2016: At Wednesday’s Council meeting it was announced the special meeting will be held at the Council Chambers on Monday, January 18 at 9:00am.

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