June 5, 2018
The Lady Bjelke-Petersen Community Hospital has begun offering a chronic wound dressing service … and thanks to a generous donation by Bill Hull Car Centre, it will also be able to provide it to patients too ill to travel into Kingaroy.
Lady Bjelke-Petersen Community Hospital Foundation chairman Wayne Kratzmann announced the new service at the Kingaroy Chamber Of Commerce and Industry’s most recent six-weekly Meet’n’Greet, which was held at the hospital in Markwell Street.
Wayne said the hospital recently secured a $300,000 contract from the Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network to provide the wound dressing service.
He said there many patients in the South Burnett would benefit from the service – which is free to health care card holders – and the hospital was very pleased to add it to its growing list.
The wound service offers patients a personalised wound management plan, wound debridement (ie removing dead tissue to promote more rapid healing) and measurements for compression garments.
The hospital is running the wound dressing clinic daily, and thanks to the donation by Bill Hull Car Centre, is also able to offer a home visit service and after-hours care.
To be eligible for the free service, patients need to:
- Be referred to the service by a local GP affiliated with the hospital,
- Have a current health care card, and
- Not be receiving a wound management service funded by another agency
However, patients who don’t meet these criteria may be seen by negotiation with the hospital.
“The Lady Flo is our community’s hospital, and we’re very proud to bring this new service to our region,” Wayne said.
“We don’t get any State or Federal funding but right now we carry out about 100 surgeries a month.
“We also look after 15 palliative care patients and we employ 22 staff.
“I think this hospital is central to Kingaroy and the South Burnett’s future because when people are thinking about moving to an area, one of the top things on their mind is access to good health services.”
Wayne said some local GPs were still referring patients to Brisbane or Toowoomba for services that could now be obtained locally, and he hoped this could be turned around in the future.
“We need to carry out another 50 surgeries a month to be fully viable, and that volume of work exists,” he said.
“We just need to get the word out that it’s not necessary to travel for hours to get modern treatments that are already available in our own region.
“So I’d encourage any patients referred to Brisbane or Toowoomba by their GP to stop and ask them if they could get the same treatment here.”
* * *
Wayne told the KCCI meeting he will be personally hosting a fundraiser for the Lady Bjelke-Petersen Community Hospital at The Bunyas on Saturday (June 9).
The event will be a Stradbroke Race Day running from noon to 5:00pm.
For $69 per head, guests can enjoy complimentary champagne on arrival; tapas and finger foods throughout the day; live music from Fitzy; and all the day’s races on a big screen.
There’ll also be prizes for the best-dressed lady, gentleman and couple; Kratzie’s Punters Podium; a Calcutta on the Stradbroke Handicap and sweeps on all the other Brisbane races; and a complimentary bus from and to the Kingaroy Hotel.
The event is being sponsored by The Bunyas, Bank of Queensland Kingaroy, Proteco Oils, South Burnett Radiology and Westlink Petroleum and tickets must be paid for prior to the day.
They can be booked by phoning (07) 4668-3131 or by email
* * *
Other Topics At The Meet’n’Greet
Feedback from recent public consultation meetings about the Kingaroy Revitalisation Project has shown that there was a limited appetite for any development of an extended Glendon Street forecourt.
Mayor Keith Campbell told the KCCI meeting the most popular items, in decreasing order, were:
- The development of better parking facilities on old railway land near Haly Street and the rear of the Commonwealth Bank
- RV parking areas and a dump point in the CBD, along with signage to direct caravanners to where these were
- Disabled parking bays in the CBD
- Electric charging bays for electric cars, which will become more common in the future
- Moving the Haly Street pedestrian crossing to a safer location mid-way between Glendon and Kingaroy streets
- Developing new access roads for Swickers to replace Haly Street
The Mayor said the principal focus for the Council’s upcoming 2018-19 Budget would be to operate the Council as a business, and the Budget’s chief focus would be to minimise costs.
The Mayor said the Council was looking at a small operational surplus next year, the first time this has been achieved since the merged Council was formed a decade ago.
“An Operational Budget that returns a surplus means we’re living within our means,” the Mayor said.
* * *
The Kingaroy Chamber Of Commerce recently held a joint meeting with representatives from the Murgon Business and Development Association, the Nanango Tourism and Development Association, the Kingaroy Show Society and other local groups to explore areas of common interest and concern, KCCI President Rob Fitz-Herbert told the meeting.
The outcome was that the problems facing Kingaroy businesses – and the issues that most concern them most – are fairly common throughout the region, he said.
One key area of interest was the South Burnett Regional Council’s local procurement policy, which he said had appeared to have lost focus in recent years.
This had led to a positive initial meeting with the new manager of Council’s finance department.
A follow-up meeting would be scheduled early next financial year after the Council’s 2018-19 Budget was brought down in late June.
Other findings from the joint meeting would be passed on to the Council’s Economic Development Unit for attention, Mr Fitz-Herbert said.
However, one area of current Council policy he disagreed with was its continuing cut-backs on support for community groups.
Mr Fitz-Herbert said nationwide studies on volunteerism had shown volunteers contributed millions of hours to their communities around the nation each year, and this saved all levels of government literally billions of dollars in providing similar services themselves.
The South Burnett relied heavily on community groups to build and maintain the region’s social fabric, and would be a far less attractive place to live without them, he said.
“Council needs to stop penalising our region’s community groups,” Mr Fitz-Herbert said.
* * *
The next KCCI Meet’n’Greet will be held at the Kingaroy Youth Park in Somerset Street, Kingaroy, on Tuesday, June 19, at 5:30pm.
The meeting will be hosted by South Burnett CTC and will include a presentation from them, along with local business updates.
The meeting will also receive an update from the South Burnett Regional Council on its current projects, including the results of recent community consultations on its draft Sports and Recreation Infrastructure Plan and the 2018-19 Budget.
Meeting fees are $10 to cover the cost of drinks and nibbles, and all businesspeople are welcome, whether they’re KCCI members or not.
RSVP to KCCI secretary Paula Greenwood by June 18.
What an outstanding donation and contribution to the Lady Flo Community Hospital. Thank you Jacqui Trace and Bill Hull Car Centre for your ongoing support of our South Burnett Community.