Southside health hub is on track
PREGNANT mums and dialysis patients have been revealed as the main patrons of a new health facility set to open in Edmonton later this year.
The Cairns South Health Facility will also be totally selfsufficient and could be quickly converted into an emergency surgery hub in the event of natural disasters.
Health authorities released more detail into the longawaited $25 million facility – a backup to Cairns Hospital – during a visit to the site yesterday, confirming it was on schedule for an opening later this year, with construction ongoing throughout the virus crisis.
Among its facilities will be 12 chairs for renal dialysis, which adds to the 83 located throughout the entire Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, an area including the Tablelands, Cassowary Coast, Mossman and Cooktown.
CHHHS Cairns services acting director Linda Bailey said a need for additional dialysis services in the city’s southern corridor had been identified.
“It will be of great benefit for those who need to come for dialysis three times a week from south of Cairns,” she said.
“We know that these 12 chairs that we’ve planned for this facility are part of that growth that’s been identified in the renal services plan.”
Ms Bailey said the facility would also focus on maternal, mental and allied health, with the capacity for emergency care if required.
“As Cyclone Yasi showed we needed to have some ability to manage if Cairns Hospital is cut off for parts of the population. So it’s very important,” she said.
Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt said its dual identity made the facility the first of its kind in Australia.
Mr Pitt previously said he had been pushing for a dualpurpose health facility on the southside since Cyclone Yasi forced the precautionary evacuation of patients at the Cairns Hospital in 2011.
He said a friend was forced to give birth in the Fretwell Park cyclone shelter during Yasi, something he hoped would never happen again during an extreme weather event.
The venue, which has been built to withstand category 5 cyclone conditions, is a short distance from the PCYC, which is also a designated cyclone shelter and the CHHHS community health centre. It will have its own water tanks, generators and sewerage system, allowing it to be standalone.
“In the case of an emergency we will see this converted into an operating theatre and an approach which is all about ensuring how the emergency aspects can be dealt with appropriately.”
Mr Pitt said the build on the 5.2ha site had created 20 fulltime jobs with almost 400 people inducted on the worksite – 80 per cent of them local. It is being built by Hansen Yuncken – a national construction company with a Cairns office.