Labor announces 300 extra nurses for Coast

LABOR has ramped up its focus on frontline services in the opening days of the state election campaign by promising an extra 300 nurses on the Gold Coast.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also said the Glitter Strip would get another 16 midwives and the nurse navigator program would be expanded, adding another 50 staff.

Ms Palaszczuk’s announcement yesterday followed her pledge on Saturday to give the city another 44 cops.

Opposition MPs this month questioned whether the Coast’s health system could cope with the influx of athletes and fans for next year’s Commonwealth Games.

But Labor yesterday insisted it was the party which would invest most in health, claiming the LNP and One Nation would reduce the number of health employees.

The Government also said it would expand safe nurse-topatient ratios to acute public mental health wards and introduce public reporting on safe staff-to-patient ratios in aged care settings. Labor Bonney candidate Rowan Holzberger said the Government had legislated nurse-to-patient ratios in adult acute medical and surgical wards despite the opposition of the LNP.

“Only Labor is committed to providing Queenslanders with the nurses and health services they need,” Mr Holzberger said.

But Opposition health spokesman and Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek said Labor had no answer to more ramping and fewer hospital beds.

“Labor should address their failure to stop hospital ramping, bed blocking and the overall decline in services at Queensland hospitals,” he said.