JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
NEW HOSPITAL TO EASE COAST’S HEALTH BURDEN
THE Gold Coast will gain its third public hospital to slash waiting times for elective surgeries.
Queensland Health will today announce it will take over the former Gold Coast Surgical Hospital at Varsity Lakes in a bid to open up the under-pressure Gold Coast University Hospital’s (GCUH) emergency capacity.
Health Minister Cameron Dick said the hospital near Bond University would be renamed Varsity Lakes Day Hospital and welcome its first patients on November 1.
“The new day hospital will also increase valuable bed space and reduce the length of stay for patients waiting for surgery at Gold Coast University and Robina hospitals,” he said in a statement.
“By boosting surgeries and freeing up hospital beds, this initiative will no doubt improve capacity for the whole Gold Coast health system to the benefit of staff, patients and the wider Gold Coast community.”
According to Gold Coast Health, the new hospital’s six operating theatres will host around 15,000 surgeries annually, including an additional 3000 endoscopies and routine gynaecology, orthopedics, plastics and ophthalmology surgeries.
The former hospital is being leased from Healthe Care Australia and it is unknown how much it will cost.
Queensland Health data obtained by the Bulletin this year showed an increase in patients waiting for certain elective surgeries at the city’s two public holidays from late 2015 to late 2016.
Patients with conditions not expected to deteriorate quickly were forced to wait around 253 days, up from 184 for the previous year.
The average wait at the Robina Hospital had increased from 86 days to 189.
These patients must be seen within 365 days for surgery.
Gold Coast Health chief executive Ron Calvert said leasing the facility would ease the demand for theatre times at GCUH.
“We recently received feedback from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons that our trauma service at GCUH was considered world class and maintaining that standard requires us to ensure we have enough operating theatre capacity to manage our complex emergency case load,” he said.