Urgent need for more beds
Outgoing chairman says hospital’s biggest issues funding, capacity
Gold Coast hospitals are “desperately short on beds”, outgoing health boss Ian Langdon says as he reflects on more than a decade as chairman of the city’s public healthcare system.
On Sunday, Mr Langdon bid farewell as chairman of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Board after 12 years in the role. During that time, Mr Langdon oversaw the expansion of two major hospitals, about 12,000 staff and a $2.3bn annual budget.
Last year, Mr Langdon was awarded a medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia for his service to the community, and to the primary industry.
In 2013, just a year into his role as chairman, he oversaw the relocation of the old Gold Coast Hospital to its current facility in Southport – the biggest planned hospital move in Australia.
“We did it within 24 hours. It was well planned and had good co-operation from the police, council and ambulance services,” Mr Langdon said.
About 219 patients were transferred from the old facility by ambulance with “militarylike precision” to the newly built Gold Coast University Hospital which at the time had a 750-bed capacity.
“When we moved in, we actually weren’t large enough to fill all the wards, so some wards were closed for a limited period of time,” Mr Langdon said.
“And I vividly remember the media criticising the previous government, which was the
Beattie Labor government, for overbuilding something which wasn’t necessary.
“Now we’re desperately short on beds and we run at 100 per cent occupancy day-in and day-out. So when people look at the emergency department and the waiting times and so on, it’s not because of inefficiency.
“It’s because we don’t have the beds to put them into.”
With the Gold Coast population set to grow to one million by 2046, Mr Langdon said the biggest issues would continue to be funding and beds.
“We went from being a hospital with some wards not even open to then being at full capacity and now needing another 600 beds over the next four years,” he said.
“We’re well and truly below where we should be. In my view, by the time Coomera Hospital is built and we get those 400 beds there will be a need for an expansion of that hospital.”
However Mr Langdon said that despite financial and resourcing pressures, the Gold Coast continued to deliver “world class” health care.
He also criticised both political parties for using the healthcare system for “point scoring”.
“My biggest disappointment is in the political scene,” he said. “There are definitely times when mistakes are made because we have tens of thousands of patients a year, but there is a tendency to forget the other 99 per cent of cases where everything goes smoothly and miracles occur.
“And what really worries me is that we have one of the world’s best health service in Australia, but all the highlighting of so-called problems eats away at the public confidence.”
Gold Coast Hospital and Health Board member Professor Cindy Shannon AM has since been announced as the new chairwoman.