Execs promise to address Nambour Hospital shortfalls

By Richard Bruinsma

Residents at an information forum about the $86-million refurbishment of Nambour Hospital.

Residents who attended an information forum about the pending $86-million refurbishment of the Nambour Hospital have complained they’ve been left in the dark about the project and also described some “nonsensical” management decisions at the major health facility.
Hospital executives promised to address the concerns, while local Member for Nicklin Marty Hunt said the problems may never have erupted if the Queensland Government had not dragged the chain on the refurbishment plans.
“You get one chance to build a new hospital and there’s an absolute passion and commitment among staff that we generate a hospital that the community needs,” forum chair and Nambour General Hospital Director of Nursing/Facility Manager, Graham Wilkinson, told attendees.
“We leave here today knowing there’s a position in the community about transportation, there’s a position in the community that they’re not happy yet in the engagement or the communications.
“We’re not there yet, but that’s what is the journey for the next two or three years, and you have a commitment that we’re going to keep talking, we’re going to keep communicating, we’re going to be engaging; you mightn’t get all the answers you want, but we’re going to give it a good shake.”
One forum attendee questioned why she was taken to Sunshine Coast University Hospital, at Kawana, for a procedure that could have been completed at Nambour Hospital, which is just kilometres from her home.
Another said she had undergone three leg surgeries as a public patient at Buderim Private Hospital, but then the hospital would not release her patient records to the public system that was managing her condition and had paid for her procedure.
The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service manages five hospitals – SCUH, Nambour, Caloundra, Maleny and Gympie – and local patients can have procedures scheduled at any one of them, based on scheduling, beds, staff availability etc. One forum attendee noted patients could be taken to Gympie, for example, but then be left stranded with no way home after their treatment is complete.
There were also general concerns about what exactly is happening with the Nambour Hospital, which has had total bed numbers drop to 137 from the approximately 370 it had prior to the opening of SCUH. Once the refurbishments are complete, the hospital will back up to 251 beds.
Troy Kenny, the Nambour Hospital Redevelopment Project Director, said detailed design work was now underway – including with contractor LendLease – and construction was due to begin “in the third quarter this year” and “be completed at the end of 2022”.
Mr Kenny explained that passers-by would see little initial change as the majority of work was interior, with the final stage to be more visual when they “demolish Block 1 and a new forecourt and entry to the facility, and emergency, comes into play”.
The redevelopment is occurring in stages, with the hospital to remain fully functioning as the upgrades progress. The hospital will host more community information forums and will host open days as the refurbishments progress.
However, Mr Hunt said then Minister for Health Cameron Dick had advised in 2015 that the refurbishments would be complete by 2018.
“The community were entitled to rely on that advice, and here we are in 2019 and it’s only just starting,” Mr Hunt said.
“Now, what you see in these community forums – with people saying they don’t know what’s going on, where’s all the staff, they’ve gone, they feel abandoned - is a symptom of that.
“They took the 1800 staff out (in March 2017), they didn’t communicate what was going on; I couldn’t find out during the (November 2017 election) campaign what was going on, I had to wait until I was an elected representative to actually put questions to the minister in the Parliament so I could get answers, and that seemed to spark them into action.
“What you see is a community that is frustrated; these people (the SCHHS staff at the forum) are doing their best to repair that situation and I commend them for holding these community forums and letting the people know what’s available now, what’s going to be available into the future and listening to the community about what they need.
“It’s good to see it finally happening, but the delays that they’ve experienced, and the lack of communication, is solely at the feet of the Labor Government.”
In late 2018, a SCHHS Facebook post noted the project included expansion of the emergency department, as well as expansion of key departments, including mental health services, surgical services and medical services, with a focus on families and older persons.
The post reported other aspects of the redevelopment included: new medical imaging equipment with increased service capacity; new Acute and Restorative Care ward (inpatient unit); a new same day rehabilitation service model to encourage the transferring of care from an inpatient to ambulatory setting; expansion and collocation of short stay wards - Medical Assessment Planning Unit, Emergency Short Stay Unit and Surgical Decision Unit, near the emergency department and surgical services to improve patient flows; and improved design of renal dialysis unit, Central Sterilising Unit, Oncology and Day Unit Infusion Therapy units, and kitchen facilities.

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Note: The forum was held on March 12.