Major emergency department expansion to reduce ambulance ramping at Rockhampton Hospital

• The Crisafulli Government is expanding the Rockhampton Hospital emergency department for the second time.
• The major expansion of the ED will increase treatment spaces, reduce ambulance ramping and help heal Labor’s Health Crisis.
• The Crisafulli Government has reduced ramping at Rockhampton Hospital to 33.2% in December 2025. 
• The expansion is forecast to be completed by the end of next year and is part of a surge in Hospital Rescue Plan construction across the State.
• The Crisafulli Government is delivering health services where you need them and a plan for Queensland’s future after a decade of decline under Labor.  

The Crisafulli Government is delivering health services when you need them across Central Queensland, with a new major expansion of the Rockhampton Hospital emergency department to help tackle ambulance ramping and provide life-saving medical care. 

It’s just one of the ways the Crisafulli Government is delivering easier access to health services and healing Labor’s Health Crisis, thanks to the fully funded Hospital Rescue Plan which is also delivering a new modular expansion of the Gladstone Hospital.  

Labor left health facilities in Central Queensland on life support and provided false promises of a bigger emergency department to the Rockhampton community on the eve of the election. There were no plans, no funds, and would never have been delivered.

The emergency department expansion will occur in tandem with the construction of an expanded transit lounge, which will grow from 12 to 20 treatment spaces.

It will take over adjacent space currently used for storage and is forecast to be completed by the end of next year.

The expanded emergency department will deliver 58 treatment spaces. This includes:

• four additional emergency department cubicles 
• two additional mental health cubicles  
• one mental health seclusion room 
• two additional procedure rooms, and  
• an expanded patient waiting room, new reception, and staff facilities.  

This is the second time the Crisafulli Government has expanded the emergency department, after 12 new treatment areas were delivered in the emergency department during a fast-track upgrade in July 2025. 

This expansion was made possible by using the space freed up when the hospital’s Orthopaedic Clinic was moved out of the main building and into a purpose-built facility.   

Labor’s decade of decline resulted in surging waitlists, dilapidated health infrastructure, and record ambulance ramping peaking at more than 56% at Rockhampton Hospital.  

It comes as the statewide ambulance ramping rate dropped to 37.3 per cent in the December quarter – the lowest the quarterly ambulance ramping rate has been since December 2020.  

Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Tim Nicholls said the expanded emergency department was necessary after Labor failed to budget or plan for an upgraded facility, despite making promises to do so. 

“Our fully-funded Hospital Rescue Plan is delivering a fresh start for Rockhampton and Central Queensland after a decade of decline left the local health system on life support,” Minister Nicholls said.  

Member for Rockhampton Donna Kirkland said the expanded emergency department would help bring down ambulance ramping. 

“The Crisafulli Government is delivering its second expansion of the Rockhampton Hospital emergency department, after Labor sat back and did nothing for a decade,” Ms Kirkland said.