Labor’s plan to strip control of local Hospital Boards is well underway, Shadow Health Minister Mark McArdle said today.
Mr McArdle said the Hunter Review dumped on local Hospital Boards concluded the government should establish a new leadership executive, effectively giving power to George Street at the expense of local people with local experience.
“The new executive is made up of the Director General, Deputy Directors General, senior bureaucrats, the Queensland Ambulance Service Commissioner, all of whom work in Brisbane,” Mr McArdle said.
“The only local knowledge on this executive is Chair of the Hospital and Health Board Chairs Forum.
“The Palaszczuk Labor Government is silencing the voices of rural and regional Queenslanders and restricting the rural and regional knowledge of what is happening in local hospitals.
“Aren’t they a part of Queensland and don’t they have a right to be heard?
“Labor said its government would consult with Queenslanders, but this is far from it, and this complete disregard for rural and regional Queensland is holding the state back.
Mr McArdle said there were 16 Local Hospital Boards each with between 6 and 10 members - a total of between 96 and 160 people, but local knowledge would be lost or ignored.
He said the Chair of the Hospital and Health Board Chairs Forum, the only regional representative, had no voting rights.
“The reason they can’t is the Hunter Review saw a potential perception of conflict of duty,” he said.
“How does the Chair of the Health Board Forum have a conflict of interest when all other members of the executive, also working in Queensland Health, don’t?
“Local hospital boards are clearly at risk and the Palaszczuk Labor Government is restricting their ability to act on local knowledge.
“The boffins of George Street are back in charge at the expense of rural and regional Queensland.”
