Save the Royal Children's Hospital - Brisbane

Please join the thousands of Queenslanders who oppose the closure of Brisbane's Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). The Royal Children’s is being closed against the advice of all the major expert groups (the vast majority of Queensland's paediatricians, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Australian Medical Association, the Queensland Nurses' Union, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia, the Medical Staff Associations of Royal Brisbane Women's (adult) Hospital together with the Brisbane's Royal Children’s Hospital, many staff at the Mater Children's Hospital and ambulance drivers). Closing of Brisbane's Royal Children’s Hospital will compromise our children's health services and put some of these children at very serious risk.
Media:  
Quest News: Banner slating Bligh's hospital closure plan put up outside children's hospital

"The closure of the RCH will require babies to be separated from their mothers, and transported, at increased risk, to the Mater site, a journey which some may not survive," Dr Smith said in a statement.

Courier Mail: Costly Queensland Children's Hospital to hit kids
Courier Mail: Fears new Queensland Children's Hospital 'will fail kids'
Sky News: Protest at Bris hospital closing plan
Courier Mail: Funding fears for new Queensland Children's Hospital as money diverted from vital research
Courier Mail: Cost blow-out hits kids' hospital as LNP vow to save Royal Children's Hospital
teresagambaro.com : Royal Children’s Hospital Protest

"The new hospital is likely to struggle to look after the current needs, let alone the future needs," said Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Queensland chairman Maurice Stevens, an ENT specialist.


Other:

Royal Children's Hospital Website
QLD Nures Union Submission on RCH Closure


"Our members hold concern that the Prince Charles Hospital Paediatric Emergency Department which is a satellite service will not meet the demand for the 20,000 presentations per year predicted in the planning for the first three years. This vastly underestimates the likely number of presentations and the target will probably be reached much sooner.

In addition, the Prince Charles Hospital does not have a paediatric surgical service in line with the clinical capabilities framework for a level 4 service." QLD Nurses Union

CLOSURE OF ROYAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

The planned construction of a new children’s hospital at the Mater site will require closure of the Royal Childrens Hospital.

  1. It is folly to close a larger, established, world-respected children’s hospital to enlarge a smaller, badly sited one.
  2. There will be no or only a minimal paediatric accident & emergency service on the north side.
  3. Without on-site paediatric surgery, newborns requiring surgery will have to be transported to the Mater site, increasing the risk to these frail infants. The Royal Women’s will become the only neonatal unit in the State which does not have the important support of an on-site Children’s hospital.
  4. The misguided one hospital policy eliminates back-up in emergencies such as epidemics, fire or radioactive spill. Sydney has Westmead and Randwick Children’s hospitals; Melbourne has Royal Children’s and Monash.
  5. Without the co-located supporting strengths of the Herston complex in medicine, surgery, pathology, genetics, imaging and research, it is not possible to have a ‘world-class’ hospital at the Mater site. The Qld Institute of Medical Research is the largest in Australia; the pathology/genetics service, recently upgraded for $126m, will be broken up. The Herston complex of three mutually supporting teaching hospitals and medical school is unique in Australia.
  6. Restriction of choice in genetics/family planning services are inevitable at the Mater site as well as restrictions in certain types of research.
  7. Because of its high cost, quality services presently available at Royal Childrens Hospital will be unavailable or restricted; these include integrated burns unit, integrated trauma unit, comprehensive endoscopy, bowel motility studies, PET scanning and liver transplantation.
  8. The fate of the 95 units accommodating country parents within easy walk of the Royal Childrens Hospital is uncertain.
  9. The $80m public investment in paediatric infrastructure at Royal Childrens Hospital via organizations such as Woolworths and Coles, may be diverted to non-paediatric use.
  10. This was a non-transparent political decision. An enquiry into the most suitable site for paediatric cardiac surgery, which showed Herston to be superior to the Prince Charles and Mater sites was not only ignored but mysteriously transformed into a plan for a whole new hospital at the Mater 2 weeks before the State election of September 2006.
  11. An important motivation for the plan was the desire to monopolise private practice to the Mater site.
  12. The non-sensical architectural assessment of the Herston site as unsuitable for a building was commissioned more than one year after the Premier’s announcement and without consultation with the Herston engineers.
    13. An independent management consultant’s report (July 08) concluded that the planning process was a mess.
  13. With the likelihood of an expanding population and requirement for more than one paediatric facility, fulfilment of this plan will, in 20 years time, be looked upon as a costly mistake.
  14. The plan is opposed by 75% of the membership of the Paediatric Society of Queensland and has attracted 2000 professional signatures of protest, including ambulance officers.

The rational and economically responsible approach would be to upgrade the Royal Childrens Hospital to full tertiary referral status, while maintaining the Mater Children’s Hospital with future expansion dependent on population expansion and shifts.

 

Save the Royal Children's Hospital - Brisbane 2012
Photo by Pedro Klien