The State Government’s plan to strip control of local Hospital Boards is well underway, Shadow Health Minister Mark McArdle said today.
Mr McArdle said the Hunter Review on local Hospital Boards concluded the government should establish a new leadership executive, effectively giving power to George Street at the expense of local people with local experience.
“The new executive is made up of the Director General, Deputy Directors General, senior bureaucrats and the Queensland Ambulance Service Commissioner, all of whom work in Brisbane,” Mr McArdle said.
“The only local knowledge on this executive is Chair of the Hospital and Health Board Chairs Forum.
“The Government is silencing the voices of rural and regional Queenslanders and restricting the rural and regional knowledge of what is happening in local hospitals.
“Aren’t they a part of Queensland and don’t they have a right to be heard?”
Mr McArdle said the Government had promised it would consult with Queenslanders, but was now showing disregard for rural and regional Queensland.
Mr McArdle said there were 16 Local Hospital Boards, each with between 6 and 10 members – a total of between 96 and 160 people – but this local knowledge would be lost or ignored.
The Chair of the Hospital and Health Board Chairs Forum – the only regional representative on the leadership executive – had no voting rights.
“The reason they can’t is the Hunter Review saw a potential perception of conflict of duty,” Mr McArdle said.
“How does the Chair of the Health Board Forum have a conflict of interest when all other members of the executive, also working in Queensland Health, don’t?
“Local hospital boards are clearly at risk and the Government is restricting their ability to act on local knowledge.
“The boffins of George Street are back in charge at the expense of rural and regional Queensland.”
