CAIRNS’ $4.18 million cath lab is operational and the money to make it a 24/7 facility was allocated three months ago – the only thing missing is a doctor.
But yesterday Queensland opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk warned the solution to that little problem could be a long way off, accusing Premier Campbell Newman of scaring doctors away from Queensland.
“The doctor contracts crisis has had a huge impact because they have not been able to attract the specialists here to the Cairns region,” she said.
“We lost really good people, they left Queensland and now there’s a problem attracting people back here to the Far North.”
Sandy Donald from the Together Union agreed.
“Queensland has an appalling reputation as an employer amongst doctors, which will certainly make it much harder to find someone suitable to fill these positions,” he said.
“Doctors interstate and overseas are very likely to have heard of the horrible struggle doctors have had here and the appalling contracts the Government tried to force on us.”
Funding to make the cath lab a 24/7 facility was approved by the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service on June 16, then applications were called for the positions of interventional cardiologist and cardiologist called.
That application period closed on August 29, but the CHHHS has refused to comment on how the recruitment process is going, how many applications were lodged or if any applications were received at all.
Cairns MP Gavin King was approached for comment, but didn’t respond to calls or emails.
It follows an explicit warning from the Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine to doctors, advising them not to work in Queensland.
The New Zealand Association of Salaried Medical Specialists made a similar warning last year.
Standing outside the hospital’s redeveloped D Block, shadow treasurer Curtis Pitt said the LNP should start fixing the hospital’s staffing issues and stop claiming the Bligh government’s legacy as its own.
“The cardiac catheter lab was another terrific initiative put forward by the previous government – we established the cardiac catheter lab, it is in operation because of the Labor government and what we’re now seeing is this government dragging its heels and responding to a crisis rather than getting ahead,” he said.
“But they’re happy to come along and smile for the cameras at the openings. They can’t have it both ways.”
The $4.18 million cardiac catheter laboratory was officially opened in August 2010 by Queensland’s former health minister Paul Lucas.