Opposition caught out on bed numbers claims

Health Minister Stephen Robertson today said the Liberal National Party was continuing to mislead the Queensland public by claiming there has been a decline in the number of public hospital beds in the last decade.

“That is simply untrue,” Mr Robertson said.

In the publicly available table of bed numbers on the Queensland Health website, the number of hospital beds (including bed equivalents) at the end of the 1997/98 financial year was 10,063.

“This was actually 100 fewer than when the Liberal National Party came to office only two years earlier," Mr Robertson said.

“The number of beds at the end of the 07/08 financial year was 10,383 – 220 more than when the Coalition was in power, and 659 more in our 28 busiest hospitals.

“It is time the Liberal National Party stopped telling lies and faced up to the truth about their performance the last time Lawrence Springborg sat around the Cabinet table.

“Not only did six hospital maternity units close including two in his own back yard but 150 beds were ripped out of our 28 busiest hospitals.

“That’s the record of Lawrence Springborg and that’s the record of the Liberal National Party last time they governed Queensland,” Mr Robertson said.

“A generous interpretation of the additional beds they promised during the last election campaign that could have been opened over the past two years shows that, at best, they would have opened only 131 beds by now – 106 at Robina and 25 at Noosa hospitals.

“We’d still be another six months away from any relief for Townsville with their 100 bed unit commitment that they promised to open within two and a half years of the last election.

“We’d have no new Emergency Department at the Prince Charles Hospital and no expanded Emergency Departments at Gympie, Redcliffe, Redlands and Townsville.

“Also no work would be underway to build new or expand Emergency Department’s at Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Caloundra, Caboolture and the Princess Alexandra hospitals.

“Our record over the past two years of opening 780 new beds across Queensland stands in stark contrast to the under commitment by the Liberal National Party.

“They cut public services, we build public services,” Mr Robertson said.

Media Contact: Catherine Goldie 3234 1190 or 0417 728 676