August 9, 2022
Kingaroy hosted the LNP’s 20th “health crisis” public meeting on Tuesday morning, attracting a crowd of almost 200 residents to St John’s Lutheran School Hall.
The State Opposition has been holding public meetings across Queensland in recent months to collect stories that paint a picture of a health system in crisis.
Attendees at Kingaroy – which included current and former Queensland Health staff – were invited to share their stories about treatment delays, postponed surgery and nurse/patient ratios.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who chaired the meeting, said the the Kingaroy gathering was the largest held so far across the State.
He said that when he looked at health statistics, every one was “going in the wrong direction”, eg. 50 per cent of people do not get seen on time in Kingaroy Hospital’s Emergency Department while Queensland Health is spending more than $10 million a month across the State on locum doctors to fill gaps.
Mr Crisafulli said staff in Queensland hospitals had never felt less valued.
He promised that incidents shared from the floor, or in private sessions afterwards, would be raised immediately with Health Minister Yvette D’Ath and also taken “straight to the floor of Parliament House to demand action and change”.
Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates, a former nurse of 40 years, took a roving microphone around the room so people could ask questions and share their experiences.
She said the State Government had accused the LNP of “making up stories” about what was happening in Queensland hospitals but the attendance at the LNP’s public meetings showed otherwise.
Ms Bates said doctors, nurses, paramedics and allied healthcare workers were exhausted and deserved more respect.
“As a nurse and former hospital administrator, I know how stressful it can get for the staff who are doing everything they can to keep our hospitals running,” Ms Bates said.
“The embattled Health Minister doesn’t have a plan to fix it. What has this State Government been doing for the last seven years to improve our hospitals?”
One nurse told the meeting how she would go home crying after working in palliative care because she did not have enough time to hold a patient’s hand or even give them their pain medication on schedule.
A mother spoke about being terrified at Kingaroy Hospital when she attended with her young child and a mental health patient became violent and abusive but there was no security staff to help.
Ms Bates said nurses and other staff were being assaulted regularly in Queensland Hospitals, but these assaults were often not reported.
Nanango MP Deb Frecklington said the local health system had been struggling for years with staff shortages and the withdrawal of critical healthcare services.
“Today multiple nurses spoke out and revealed they had walked away from their careers because they felt undervalued,” she said.
Mrs Frecklington said one father explained how his seven-year-old son’s surgery was cancelled at the last minute.
“A mother waited with her son to be seen for seven hours in the Emergency Department,” she said.
“These problems existed long before COVID and the people of Kingaroy and neighbouring areas just want the State Government to fix it.
“The entire region is suffering because of the lack of health services. Labor simply does not have a plan to fix regional health.
“We need more investment in mental health, palliative care and paediatric services.”
Mr Crisafulli said the LNP’s suggestions to help fix the crisis included the Federal Government giving a HECs incentive to new doctors willing to work in regional areas, as well as financial incentives to help their families relocate.
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Raw video of Tuesday’s media conference ahead of the meeting at St John’s Hall (video supplied by LNP):
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Audio from the public meeting:
Thank you southburnett.com.au for again reporting the major issues of our area. A sad state of affairs to have the current failure of our Health System. Queensland once boasted the best Health System in Australia.
As a rural GP with over 40 years experience in country medicine as both a GP and hospital doctor, I would like to point out what is happening in the South Burnett is symptomatic of rural districts all over Australia.
I hear nothing but criticism and negativity about the new KDH. I would prefer to offer a bouquet for the care, kindness and competence offered to me by all the staff during two stays in hospital in the past 3 years.
Kingaroy has the potential to be a top class base hospital in the new building when it stops leaking. It is multiple times better now than the older one where I had patients years ago.
I can assure you it is better than the old Nambour Hospital where I was acting Med Super for a time and the mice would come up and eat the patient’s grapes at night.
Focus on what we have – not what we have not – please.
Several years ago following surgery after an accident and 11 days in a northside Brisbane hospital, the ward arranged for me to attend the Emergency Department of a South Burnett Hospital until Blue Care were able to arrange to fit me into their visit roster.
The staff were lovely and were amazed at the package the care team had provided for them, so they could do the dressing. The comment was made, “the closest to this dressing we have is incontinence pads”. They took my temperature with a glass thermometer under the tongue! The difference between rural areas in Queensland and the city is unbelievable, yet our vote is supposed to have the same value! The pigs are flying by!
All this from the now LNP Opposition that when in Government, with an enormous majority (some 70-odd LNP MPs to ALP’s 7 or 8 MPs) that cut/sacked/defunded Public Service Departments galore across Queensland which were clearly needed, and more so in regions.
The LNP’s record and the party’s core value of “small government” goes against their now claimed “policy/fixes/suggestions”. Without more staff, improving the Service simply cannot happen.
Think Qld Health is struggling with the increased demand now? Crisafulli/Frecklington and all LNP MPs directly reference how staff are burning out NOW. Consider just how much worse Qld would be under the LNP’s position of THOUSANDS less staff. Near a decade at the Federal level certainly gave us an example on display.