Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker; we will just lower the tone a little bit now! I am pleased to say that Cooktown residents in Far North Queensland are about to see great improvements in the Cooktown Medical Centre. The practice has been awarded a $300,000 grant, which is one of 67 grants offered under the federal government's $13.1 million Rural General Practice Grants Program. This will make a big difference to the lives of Cooktown locals as well as Dr Des Hill, Dr Bill Liley, registrar Ebony Vandameer and the nurses and staff who work at the centre.

The centre currently has three rooms for doctors, and one shared room for its nurses. This grant will allow the practice to expand to eight rooms and hire an extra person. This means the practice can now have a dedicated room for telehealth, which will give patients suffering chronic diabetes or renal or cardiac disease access to specialists in Cairns Hospital without leaving home. There is also a room for minor operations such as skin cancer removal; an extra room for nurses; space to accommodate allied health, mental health and diabetes services; and a room for Indigenous health workers. Work will begin in October and is due to be completed in June next year.

I would like to congratulate Dr Des Hill, a long-time medical practitioner in Cooktown, and his team at the Cooktown Medical Centre for their vision and commitment to providing quality medical services to the people of Cooktown.