Federal Member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, is calling on the Labor State Government to focus their efforts on fixing the hospital crisis rather than throwing funds at a sports stadium.
Yesterday, the Auditor-General’s office released a damning report into just how deep the hospital crisis is.
It was revealed patients arriving by ambulance for urgent care has increased by more than 25 per cent under the Labor State Government.
Patients are also waiting longer than clinically recommended for elective surgery. Figures have shown the wait time has doubled in a year, from 10.1 per cent in December to 22.2 per cent in December last year.
Hard-working Federal Member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, said that the hospitals across regional Queensland are falling apart at the seams and people are suffering daily from Labor’s lack of care.
“Yesterday, the Premier announced Labor will splash a total of $54 million on a sport stadium redevelopment. Yet only up the road at Rockhampton Hospital, obstetricians have been throwing in the towel because the pressure from the maternity bypass has become too much.
“$54 million would go a long way to improving the health outcomes of those presenting to the Rockhampton Hospital,” Ms Landry said.
This week, Ms Landry toured the western towns of Capricornia to listen to the concerns of constituents in some of the most rural areas of the state.
As part of this tour, Mobile Offices were held in the towns of Nebo, Moranbah and Clermont.
There were a number of issues that were discussed, from Labor’s attack on mining through taxes to the worry that the latest changes to superannuation would affect their retirement plans. However, locals were deeply concerned that they don’t have adequate access to the healthcare they so rightly deserve.
“It concerns me to hear these locals worry daily that if they have a health emergency, they would be left for dead because of the lack of basic health services.
“I heard over and over how frustrated locals are with how often their region is overlooked with basic needs, like working hospitals, when the wealth of the nation is produced there.
“More needs to be done for the hospital crisis regional Queensland is in the grip of. Throwing money at a stadium to distract from the real issues just doesn’t cut the mustard,” Ms Landry said.
