Sacking the Mackay Hospital Board Does Not Get to the Root of the Problem

Health Minister D’Arth’s announcement of the sacking of the Mackay Hospital and Health Service Board is too little, too late. She does not have any solutions.

“Mackay Hospital is one symptom of a broken system, with so many media reports about failures and deaths in care in Townsville and Caboolture Hospitals, the question for Queenslanders is where is it safe to go to be cared for?” Marg Gilbert stated today.

The entire Mackay Hospital and Health Services Board has been sacked and an administrator appointed following the shocking report into Mackay Base Hospital’s obstetrics and gynaecology department revealed that inadequate healthcare led to botched surgeries and the death of babies.

It is not good enough for Health Minister Yvette D’Ath to say that she was “not satisfied that the Board is able to implement the recommendations of the report, including the cultural change needed” across the hospital. Consultants won’t fix that, effective managers and happy teams will.

The Board were political appointees and frequently we find that Hospital Board members are out of their depth when faced with the complexity and risks of a hospital service.

At the same time, the local community has no ownership or engagement with the Hospital Board.
Like many, the Mackay Hospital Board will simply be replaced with another board of the ALP’s choosing. Nothing changes.

The Mackay community are powerless to fix their own hospital. All of these boards need to be elected by their local communities and at least two of the board need to be nurses who are elected by the other nurses at the hospital. Why, because nurses understand the system and they care.

Around two-thirds of Queensland’s Hospital and Health Services are near financial ruin, despite being topped up with millions in COVID cash. It is likely that thousands of Queensland Health doctors, nurses and health workers will be managed by Administrators in the next 12 months as hospital wards and local health services close.

Queensland Health executives like the Chief Executive at Townsville Hospital and Health Service are paralysed to act and patients and staff are no longer safe. The recent violent death of a patient in care at Townsville University Hospital has seen little if no response from management and yet the Government appointed Board will not stand the Chief Executive down or undertake a thorough and independent inquiry into mismanagement.

Mackay Hospital is one symptom of a broken system, with so many media reports about failures and deaths in care in Townsville and Caboolture Hospitals, the question for Queenslanders is where is it safe to go to be cared for?