Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about health reform in my area, Redcliffe peninsula, in the electorate of Petrie. Like the member for Dobell, I am very excited about a new GP superclinic being built in my area. The Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon. Nicola Roxon, and I turned the sod with Steve Hart, the CEO of the Redcliffe Hospital Foundation, on 7 May on the site. This will be a five-storey building on the hospital grounds. What will happen is that people who attend the emergency department will be triaged and, if it is considered that it is not a emergency and they can see a GP, they will be referred straight over to the new clinic and seen by our bulk-billing doctors, who will be operating seven days a week from 8 am to 10 pm.

I have brought a picture of what the new centre will look like. It will be a fantastic centre. We are so excited about this facility. It will not only have extended hours for general practice; there will be a chronic disease management clinic, allied health practitioners—chiropractors, physiotherapists, nutritionists and dietitians—a pathology clinic, a radiology clinic and a pharmacy. The University of Queensland School of Medicine has partnered with the Redcliffe Hospital Foundation to establish this wonderful centre. We are going to have specialist suites. There are going to be 80 health professionals overall. Steve Hart has been quoted as saying:

“We want to create a situation where we can train our GPs and create a local supply,” he said.

“It’s all about developing local expertise.”

The university has projected there will be 40 medical students in training at the facility each year, 30 nursing students and six to 10 students in the School of Dentistry.

We will have a dental school in this facility. About 220 jobs will be created during the 52 weeks of construction for this facility, which is hoped to be open this time next year. There has been criticism on the other side of this chamber about the GP superclinics. Can I say that my community welcomes this announcement. This is going to be a fantastic facility. It is going to bring state-of-the-art health services to our area. I hope that we can build new clinics like this across other electorates, because other communities deserve to have what we are going to have in Redcliffe this time next year.

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