STATE Health Minister Lawrence Springborg flew to Cairns yesterday to launch the LNP’s big Far North health announcement of a 24-7 cardiac centre – confirming the same news from about two months ago.
But Cairns MP Gavin King also used the occasion to pledge state-of-the-art technology for Cairns Hospital which should give patients a boost while receiving treatment.
On October 22, local MPs Mr King and Michael Trout announced that the Cairns Cardiac Catheter Laboratory would start operating around the clock from March this year.
The lab provides management and early intervention for patients with acute cardiac conditions.
Speaking at the Cairns Hospital yesterday, Mr Springborg said it would be the seventh public hospital in Queensland to have the service.
He agreed the government had already announced the service would begin in March.
“We said this service would start in 2015 when the right person was recruited,” Mr Springborg said.
“It was pending the recruitment of a cardiologist interventionist to be able to do that particular job.
“The plan was always to start in 2015.”
Flanked by the Far North MPs, Mr Springborg repeated their comments from last year that the Cardiac Lab will switch to a 24-7 service – an increase from the two days it operated under the previous Labor government.
Mr King also announced that if the LNP government was re-elected it would commit $800,000 to the installation of interactive bedside systems (IBS) on more than 320 hospital beds.
The Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation will commit another $800,000, bringing the total investment to $1.6 million.
“The IBS include a whole range of things, including entertainment,” he said.
“These standalone interactive stations will feature everything from TV to radio, and future upgrades coming soon will include internet.
“Ultimately the hospital would like to install the online phone application, Skype to the IBS.
“You can imagine if there are patients across our region staying in this hospital, they’ll be able to Skype their family and friends, wherever they are.”
The IBS will digitise medical records and store the records of each patient at their bed.
“Individual patients will have their medical records in their IBS so that doctors, nurses and specialists can come to their bedside and they’ll be able to log on, press a few touch screens and access the patients’ very latest records,” Mr King said.
Source: Cairns Post