With many residents raising concerns to Independent Noosa MP Sandy Bolton’s office that the Noosa Hospital needs ‘saving’, Sandy has stated emphatically “this is nonsense”.
The call put out by a party candidate last week to sign a petition as part of a political campaign for an election some six months away, demonstrates a lack of understanding, and is a recognised strategy for collecting personal data for subsequent political communications, she said.
This, the Noosa MP raised last Parliament regarding data harvesting from postal vote applications, with both major parties voting to end this practice in line with a Commonwealth inquiry recommendation.
“There is no threat of the Noosa Private Hospital closing, that it needs saving, or otherwise. As I have reported, it is the slowness of the emergency department expansion due to commercial in confidence negotiations between Ramsay and Queensland Health regarding the lease, including the length of, that is frustrating. There has never been an issue that an extension or new lease would not occur, and to indicate otherwise is misinforming our community,” Ms Bolton said.
A current appeal by Ramsay Health against Noosa Council’s decision to reject an application for a Material Change of Use on a neighbouring site has created a further delay, however, Ms Bolton has no concerns that once this is completed, regardless of the determination, there will be an announcement from the Department of Health.
“From every discussion I have had with Ramsay, and Sunshine Coast Health and Hospital Service, the provision of health services to accommodate our requirements as well a population increase in the next decade requires not only expansion of facilities, but also an increase of contracted public services,” Ms Bolton said.
“At no point have they raised any concern regarding its future, or the services this hospital provides.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the history, Noosa Hospital is a private hospital with public contracts for the emergency department, certain categories of surgeries and beds managed by Ramsay Health, leased from the State Government.
“As part of managing demand, installation of transitional demountable buildings to triage patients as part of ensuring the Emergency Department operates as efficiently as possible has been extremely successful,” said Sandy.
There have been questions from the community as to why Ramsay purchased a site next door when there is room on the leased site to expand.
“I was advised that this is to relocate certain services to expand the emergency department in the current building, leaving the existing site to accommodate further needs such as increased bed capacity. As our needs have grown, our hospital has evolved, and will need to in the future,” explained Ms. Bolton.
As an independent State Member, Ms Bolton has called on all political parties and candidates to keep misinformation such as this out of campaigns, and to instead make solid, tangible and relevant commitments as to what they will provide for Noosa should they come to power. These should not be dependent on their own candidate taking office as the Noosa community deserves much better than broad policy and ‘dangling carrots’, she said.
“Our community has specific identified needs, many which have been resolved including the commitment to expand the emergency department to alleviate diversion to hospitals further away, which in turn improves ambulance response times. We also now have mental health triaging and telehealth out of Noosa Hospital and a second ambulance co-responder team in response to our calls for,“ she said.
“Examples of outstanding requests are for a Noosa-based Police Acute Care Emergency responder (PACER) and the Health Outreach team operating also at weekends. We look forward to political parties in their campaigning to state clearly what they will fund for our community, instead of wasting everyone’s time with misleading petitions.”
“Let me be clear. Should the hospital ever have been in danger for any reason, I would have called the community to action. There has never been concerns that this facility or its public services were at risk or uncertain, nor is there now,” Ms Bolton said.
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