Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am aggrieved at the attitude of the LNP in Queensland, particularly in rural and regional areas, with respect to scare campaigns they have undertaken in relation to rural hospitals in South-East Queensland and also on their threats to close down the Ipswich GP superclinic which is open for business at the University of Queensland Ipswich campus. As early as April this year the then LNP candidate for Wright, Hajnal Ban, was running around the countryside in the electorate of Wright, which I was still representing before the boundaries changed, in areas like Gatton, Laidley and Boonah, alleging the government were going to close down rural hospitals as part of the national health and hospitals network reforms. It was complete and utter nonsense. This was the sort of scare campaign they undertook in places like the Brisbane Valley as well in respect of the hospital at Esk. I then took the Minister for Regional and Rural Health, the Hon. Warren Snowdon, to my electorate and had a forum in the Brisbane Valley reassuring people that the federal Labor government is strongly committed to hospitals in regional and rural areas. In fact, under our hospital reforms, funding in South-East Queensland will prosper and continue to prosper.

But the Ipswich GP superclinic has always been, and will continue to be, under threat by the coalition. I met with patients and staff at stage 1 of the Ipswich GP superclinic. It is located at the University of Queensland campus providing an urgent care clinic focusing on care for chronic or complex skin conditions as well as chronic dermatitis, skin cancer and other illnesses as well. The GP superclinic in Ipswich is part of a health precinct that has been created by the University of Queensland Ipswich campus. Medicine, nursing and physicians assistants courses are run there and there is a psychology clinic funded by the federal government through the Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice.

The Ipswich GP superclinic is great for the local community. In fact, the Queensland Times newspaper had an editorial on 21 May entitled ‘Get hands off our super clinic Joe’, referring to the member for North Sydney. The editor of the Queensland Times waxed:

Politicians who devise ways to save taxpayers’ precious dollars should usually be applauded, but Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey does not deserve any thanks for his latest cost-cutting proposal.

Stage 2 of the GP superclinic at Ipswich will link in closely with the psychology clinic and the training of medical students which is going on. I am really looking forward to the involvement that the clinic and other medical facilities have with the Ipswich study that Professor Robert Bush at the University of Queensland is undertaking. He is doing a longitudinal study of a growing community. The GP superclinic will link with the Ipswich study and with other health facilities in that investigation and reporting.

Two GPs and a nurse will staff the new Ipswich GP superclinic from 8 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday. They will bulk-bill all concession card holders, children under 16 years of age and patients over 65 years of age. The fully operational Ipswich GP superclinic will have particular emphasis on cardiovascular, paediatric, pain/ musculoskeletal, diabetes, respiratory and mental health services. That aspect of the GP superclinic is expected to commence operation in late 2011.

We are rolling out these GP superclinics across the country, building what we believe is essential health infrastructure which Australia needs for the future. We are investing $275.2 million to establish GP superclinics in 36 communities. We have committed another $355.2 million for 28 more GP superclinics.

Mr Darryl Grundy, the CEO of the Ipswich GP superclinic, said that UQ Health Care, which runs the GP superclinic, is different from other centres for three reasons. One, there is a focus on supporting the local health community by seeing patients who cannot get in to their regular GP via the urgent care clinic. That will assuage the concerns of any local GPs in Ipswich who are concerned that their practices may suffer. Secondly, it will seek to collaborate with GPs and other health professionals with specialised skills and interests to support patients with chronic or complex conditions. Thirdly, there is the leadership of the university and the focus on best practice excellence, which this brings.

Mr Grundy’s background is as a pharmacist. He has extensive business management experience. I have met him and talked to him about the GP superclinic at the University of Queensland. He is very excited about the prospects there. I am also pleased about the way they have used the existing facilities. Mr Deputy Speaker Slipper, you had a lot of years in Ipswich and you know what the old Challinor Centre was like. That is where the Ipswich campus of the University of Queensland is located. They have used the heritage listed buildings in a very exciting way. They have made use of these historic buildings. At the same time as they have updated them and created important health facilities for the people of Ipswich they have kept the facade and architecture in place.

With respect to health services in our area this will add a lot. A study conducted by the Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice some few years ago found that we had only one GP for every 1,609 people living in Ipswich and the West Moreton area. Fortunately, those numbers have improved slightly. I am looking forward to the GP superclinic at the University of Queensland being an important part of the hub-and-spoke model that will be used as part of the Medicare Locals and the local health and hospital network. The proposals I have seen and read do look at Ipswich as being part of that model with the Ipswich General Hospital and the GP superclinic located within a stone’s throw. They are reaching out to the rural hospitals which will prosper and not suffer.

Boonah, Laidley, Gatton and Esk have small but vital hospitals. We have no intention of seeing those hospitals wither on the vine without funding. We have every intention to make sure that they continue. In those regional and rural communities the hospitals are critical to primary health care, critical of course to those patients who require an overnight stay and are sometimes then referred to the Ipswich General Hospital. Those hospitals provide so much.

The Esk Hospital in the Brisbane Valley is very important. It is the place from which Meals on Wheels operate. Meals are prepared there and given out across to Toogoolawah, Esk and other places in the Brisbane Valley. It is a great community service. It is a place where groups meet in the boardroom to discuss health prevention and where exercise classes are held. I was there on many occasions when I was on the health community council locally. I always believed that Esk Hospital served a great role in the Brisbane Valley.

I have been aggrieved by the LNP in South-East Queensland, who have been running scare campaigns threatening that we will close down these important regional hospitals. It is not true. I have also been aggrieved by the threats to close down the GP superclinic in Ipswich, which we think is so important to add to the value of primary healthcare services in the Ipswich and West Moreton region. I am excited about the future of our region. I am excited about the Gillard government’s infrastructure spending locally, not just on roads and community infrastructure but on health infrastructure in our region. (Time expired)

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further grievances, the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.