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Governor marks milestone in Charleville
At her swearing-in as Governor almost five years ago, Her Excellency made several commitments, including to visit Queenslanders where they live, and one very firm — and ambitious — pledge: to visit every public hospital in the state during her term.
Her official travel this week to the Western Downs, Maranoa and Murweh Shire council areas, accompanied by Professor Nimmo, marked two significant milestones, in that she has now visited all of Queensland’s 77 Local Government Areas (LGAs) — and all public hospitals in the state.
She used the opportunity of a visit to Charleville Hospital on Wednesday to mark the conclusion of visits to the public hospitals she identified at the beginning of her term. In remarks to a small gathering at the historic facility, where hospital staff surprised her with a celebratory cake, she noted that along the way she had expanded her goal to include a broad range of health care facilities — from community health centres and multipurpose health services to remote health services. As a result, she is on track to complete visits to a total of 150 hospitals and health services across Queensland during her term.
Each hospital and health centre visit has allowed Her Excellency, a former health professional, to acknowledge, thank and listen closely to our state’s dedicated frontline health professionals and staff, the communities they support and the patients they treat. She has also been able to advocate on behalf of these services as they seek upgrades to facilities, improvements to working processes and conditions, and other material support for the vital work they do.
Her Excellency admitted that reaching 150 health services across the country's most decentralised state had been no small undertaking. However, she said, “after 16 years as Queensland’s Chief Health Officer and a long career in medicine and medical administration, I know just how critical those services are to the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders, wherever they live in our state”.
She said Charleville Hospital held special significance, given a long history of Vice-Regal connection, stretching back to Sir Henry Norman, who was able to visit on at least two occasions, in 1892 and 1895, even if it meant catching the mail train out from Brisbane.
He was followed by many other Governors over ensuing decades, she said, noting that by far the most enthusiastic Vice-Regal supporter had been Sir Matthew Nathan. “He made no fewer than three official visits to Charleville during his term, the most important of them in October 1924 when he officially opened the long-awaited new Maternity Ward.”
It was to be the beginning of a statewide maternity and infant-welfare network that made a lasting difference to childbirth safety and to maternal and infant welfare, particularly in rural and remote Queensland.
Her Excellency took the opportunity to congratulate the hospital Board and staff, the Council, and the community of Charleville and thank them for allowing her to celebrate her 150 official hospital and health service visits with them.