339 DAYS after expectant mothers in Gladstone were told they had no choice but to drive to Rockhampton to give birth, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has today thrown a party in the park in an attempt to distract from one of the most shameful chapters of her Government’s Queensland Health Crisis.

Bizarrely, Gladstone MP Glenn Butcher was also happy to tag along for his slice of the photo-op yesterday, despite continuously failing to front up in the past and listen to the local women who were pleading for solutions to fix the maternity bypass which lasted nearly a year, on his watch.

Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates said Queenslanders won’t cop Shannon Fentiman’s ‘Let them eat cake’ approach to running them health system.

“After eight years, three terms and four health Ministers, the Palaszczuk Labor Government is in full-blown chaos and crisis and now the Health Minister is taking Queenslanders for mugs with her photo op ‘let them eat cake’ approach to the Queensland Health Crisis,” Ms Bates said.

“Mr Butcher’s attendance today is a cop-out to the mums he failed to fight for.

“Last week Mr Butcher was making aggressive gestures in Parliament telling people asking questions about the Queensland Maternity Crisis to ‘zip it’ and now he wants to have his cake and eat it too.

“Mr Butcher has no shame and has embarrassed himself.

“For Shannon ‘photo-op’ Fentiman to celebrate such a traumatic experience like this for the city of Gladstone is poor form.

“Today marks 300 days since Biloela Hospital went on bypass.

“When will Palaszczuk Government’s deliver the mums and hospital staff of Biloela their cake?

“When will the mums and hospital staff of Chinchilla get their cake?

“When will the mums and hospital staff of Cooktown get their cake?

“What about Weipa?

“38 regional maternity wards have shut under the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s watch.

“Or are they not worthy of the Health Minister’s shiny Instagram account?

“Shannon Fentiman thinks being Health Minister is a cakewalk, but as a registered nurse and former hospital administrator, my colleagues are telling me they are have a sour taste in their mouth watching Shannon Fentiman swan around the state while actually delivering nothing.

“Queensland mother’s don’t want cake, they want a health system they can rely on.”