A SATELLITE hospital is not a hospital.

 

The Tugun satellite hospital will only provide the services of a community day clinic.

 

While all health services are welcome, the Palaszczuk Government should be honest with Queenslanders about what they’re promising to deliver. 

 

A hospital has a theatre, an emergency department, an intensive care unit and overnight beds.

 

These aren’t hospitals, they are health centres.

 

It is misleading for the Premier to announce the construction of a satellite hospital at Tugun when she knows it will be nothing more than a community day clinic.

 

It is typical of a government focused on how things look, not how things are.

 

A year ago, the Premier promised seven satellite hospitals would be fully operational by next year.

 

Today she said they’ll be built within two years.

 

There is now less than a year for this latest satellite hospital to be built at Tugun.

 

Labor is losing control of Queensland Health.

 

These facilities will do very little to ease ambulance ramping and unclog our emergency departments.

 

If your child has an asthma attack, your father has a heart attack or your grandparent breaks a hip, a satellite hospital won’t help.

 

Anyone in genuine need of a hospital will still have to be transferred to a real hospital nearby which has the facilities and equipment they need to treat patients.

The LNP has put solutions on the table including more beds, better triage and giving power back to the frontline staff to make better decisions to improve patient care.

 

Labor must stop this nonsense and invest in a world-class healthcare system for all Queenslanders.

 

Queenslanders deserve better from this government.