Interview with Madonna King - ABC 612 Brisbane - Logan Hospital, QEII Hospital, GP Registrars
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17 March 2011
Topics: Logan Hospital, QEII Hospital, GP Registrars
Madonna King: Nicola Roxon is the Federal Health Minister. She's on her way from Logan Hospital to Ipswich. In Logan she's announced an extra 50 beds and a new emergency department - have I got that right Minister?
Nicola Roxon: Hello, you do. It's actually now a $230 million investment that the Commonwealth in partnership with the State is delivering for Logan Hospital and that's a new emergency department building, 50 beds which includes 14 pediatric beds and their 23 hour ward, 24 rehabilitation beds.
So it's a very big package, a significant change for what is a hospital that's incredibly busy, you know, a fast growing part of Brisbane.
Madonna King: All right have we heard any of this previously?
Nicola Roxon: Yes there is an investment that was announced for the emergency department investments of about $40 million but this is new - $175 million is new and it's combining the two projects so that they - all of the construction work can be done at one big project...
Madonna King: All right so you've got this extra $175 million to spend on this project, why did you pick 50 new beds over [audio skips] at Logan Hospital, why was that the priority?
Nicola Roxon: Well we've been making our announcements with the State Government. We've also announced investments in the QEll Hospital today so those are the announcements for today and Logan is - as your listeners know very fast growing, enormously busy emergency department, important hub for this region.
So a big investment there I think is part of Queensland health's planning for making sure they've got more hospital beds and more services closer to where people are now living...
Madonna King: And are we going to...
Nicola Roxon: ...[indistinct] are investments that we have made and announced already, for example at Cairns Hospital investment into Surgery Connect. It's all part of our health reform...
Madonna King: All right and are you going to guarantee extra staff, extra doctors to man these 50 new beds at Logan?
Nicola Roxon: Well there is an investment which is also for the service delivery and that's their vital part of this being in partnership with the State because they provide the recurrent funding for hospital services. This is an infrastructure announcement for a big chunk of it.
Madonna King: All right but for my listeners you said 50 new beds at Logan Hospital, where or who is going to fund and has there been a promise to fund the staff who will look after those beds?
Nicola Roxon: Yes there has been and the breakdown for that is that $140 million is for the upgrade so the facilities and $78 million is to boost the actual service delivery. So that includes staffing and of course it [audio cuts out]...
Madonna King: Hello?
Nicola Roxon: Hello.
Madonna King: Sorry you were cutting out there and just before I let you go, you're on your way to Ipswich where there are going to be some new GP positions announced, is that right?
Nicola Roxon: Well the new GPs, there's 182 that have started training across all of Queensland. I'm actually going to visit the Super Clinic at Ipswich because it played an important role during the floods at the start of this year and I wanted to go and thank the staff and also have a look at the services that are being provided to the community through that Super Clinic.
Madonna King: All right well welcome to Queensland and thank you very much for your time.
Nicola Roxon: It's a pleasure.
Madonna King: That's Nicola Roxon, the Health Minister.
Ends.
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