Children’s Hospital Foundation Reception
Chair, Children’s Hospital Foundation, Dr Jane Black, and Chief Executive Officer, Ms Lyndsey Rice; Health Service Chief Executive, Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Adjunct Professor Frank Tracey; Foundation staff, volunteers and supporters; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.
I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here tonight.
Graeme and I are delighted to once again welcome so many generous donors and dedicated supporters of the Children’s Hospital Foundation Queensland to Government House.
As Patron, I am delighted to thank you for your support of the Children’s Hospital Foundation and its mission to give every child the best possible chance at a healthy, hopeful future; for while it may ‘take a village to raise a child’, it is your collective commitment to a compassionate, high‑functioning health‑care system that is transforming paediatric care in Queensland and improving the experiences of children and families across our State.
The Foundation has played a vital part in supporting our health-care landscape, helping the Queensland Children’s Hospital to become the highest ranking children’s hospital in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. This amazing outcome is the result of a collective, strategic and sustained effort by many of you who have shared the Foundation’s vision of ensuring that every child, no matter the health and well-being challenges they face, nor where in the State they live, receives the best possible care and support.
As Queensland has grown, so too has demand for its world‑class paediatric services. When the State’s first children’s hospital opened in Spring Hill in 1878, it admitted just 105 children in its first year; today, the Queensland Children’s Hospital alone treats tens of thousands of inpatients annually and delivers hundreds of thousands of outpatient appointments. A truly remarkable achievement!
With this growth has come an increasingly complex operating environment, marked by sustained capacity pressures, evolving disease profiles, rising chronic and complex care needs, and ongoing funding challenges. Hence the vital importance of the Children’s Hospital Foundation, which–– since being established in 1985––has invested more than 256-million dollars in cutting-edge medical equipment, world-leading research, clinical care programs, as well as providing comprehensive wrap-around care for young patients and their families.
I commend the Foundation for continuing to introduce innovative programs to support the families of patients, including the new Transport to Treatment program for First Nations children and their families, and the “Family Concierge” program to address non-clinical needs of families in hospital.
With the support of the Foundation, world-leading researchers are working together to advance treatment options and clinical trials, to develop vaccines, improve survivorship and, hopefully, find cures for children with brain cancer and other life-threatening conditions.
Of course, much of this important work would not be possible without the generosity and kindness of those helping the Foundation to fulfil its vision.
Graeme and I are deeply grateful for the vital contributions that the Foundation’s donors, partners, supporters, volunteers, Board members and staff make day in, day out. Your generosity reflects the very best of Queensland. You have chosen to invest in children you may never meet, in families whose stories you may never hear, and in futures that will unfold long after tonight.
On behalf of all Queenslanders, I offer deep gratitude and humble thanks to all of you for your incredible efforts to help Queensland kids thrive.