Bailout: more millions for struggling super clinic
10th Oct 2011 Byron Kaye all articles by this author
Medical Observer
HEALTH
Minister Nicola Roxon has given a $3.2 million bailout to Queensland’s
Redcliffe GP super clinic, just three days after another super clinic
collapsed because the government had refused it extra funding.
The lifeline – which takes the federal government’s spending on the beleaguered Redcliffe project to $13.2 million – follows weeks of tense negotiations as the construction company stopped work claiming it had not been paid.
It also comes after the super clinic’s owner, Redcliffe Hospital Foundation (RHF), failed to secure a loan from the Queensland government and the Queensland Health Minister referred the management of the project to the state’s corruption commission. The commission has since ruled out a formal investigation.
The builder, Constructions Group, had given RHF until the end of September to pay before it considered legal action. But after an emergency meeting on that day between federal government officials, RHF and Constructions Group, the builder extended the deadline to this Friday.
In a statement today Ms Roxon said construction was set to resume, with the extra federal government money to be used to pay outstanding building fees plus the cost of completing the project.
The statement said RHF’s ability to raise finance had been “constrained by it being a Queensland state hospital foundation and the project being on state hospital land”.
In committing the extra money, the federal government was “recognising the unique circumstances of this project”.
Construction would be finished in the “coming months with the doors to open in 2012”, Ms Roxon’s statement said.
Ms Roxon also effectively downgraded RHF’s role in the super clinic, saying the foundation would remain the owner and landlord of the super clinic but it must hire a clinical operator to run it.
Foundation chair Dr Boris Chern said this would “enable us to concentrate on our core role – to represent the interests of the community and to raise funds to best meet community need”.
The news follows Ms Roxon’s announcement on Friday that a planned $2.5 million super clinic in Sorell, Tasmania, would not proceed after the operator asked for more government funding, which Ms Roxon said “is not available”.
In a statement about that super clinic, Ms Roxon indicated the area might be better served by a GP infrastructure grant.
“All over the country, including here in Tasmania, GP practices are being upgraded through our popular primary care infrastructure grants. Similar upgrades of GP practices in the Sorell area could be considered for this funding,” that statement said.
Shadow Secretary for Primary Healthcare Dr Andrew Southcott said bailing out the Redcliffe super clinic while abandoning the Sorell super clinic – four years after it was promised – showed the super clinics program was a “shambles from day one”.
“[Ms Roxon] has a lot of explaining to do regarding the Redcliffe GP super clinic, and I call on her to do exactly that by making a full disclosure on the financial issues that have been plaguing this clinic,” Dr Southcott said in a statement.
The lifeline – which takes the federal government’s spending on the beleaguered Redcliffe project to $13.2 million – follows weeks of tense negotiations as the construction company stopped work claiming it had not been paid.
It also comes after the super clinic’s owner, Redcliffe Hospital Foundation (RHF), failed to secure a loan from the Queensland government and the Queensland Health Minister referred the management of the project to the state’s corruption commission. The commission has since ruled out a formal investigation.
The builder, Constructions Group, had given RHF until the end of September to pay before it considered legal action. But after an emergency meeting on that day between federal government officials, RHF and Constructions Group, the builder extended the deadline to this Friday.
In a statement today Ms Roxon said construction was set to resume, with the extra federal government money to be used to pay outstanding building fees plus the cost of completing the project.
The statement said RHF’s ability to raise finance had been “constrained by it being a Queensland state hospital foundation and the project being on state hospital land”.
In committing the extra money, the federal government was “recognising the unique circumstances of this project”.
Construction would be finished in the “coming months with the doors to open in 2012”, Ms Roxon’s statement said.
Ms Roxon also effectively downgraded RHF’s role in the super clinic, saying the foundation would remain the owner and landlord of the super clinic but it must hire a clinical operator to run it.
Foundation chair Dr Boris Chern said this would “enable us to concentrate on our core role – to represent the interests of the community and to raise funds to best meet community need”.
The news follows Ms Roxon’s announcement on Friday that a planned $2.5 million super clinic in Sorell, Tasmania, would not proceed after the operator asked for more government funding, which Ms Roxon said “is not available”.
In a statement about that super clinic, Ms Roxon indicated the area might be better served by a GP infrastructure grant.
“All over the country, including here in Tasmania, GP practices are being upgraded through our popular primary care infrastructure grants. Similar upgrades of GP practices in the Sorell area could be considered for this funding,” that statement said.
Shadow Secretary for Primary Healthcare Dr Andrew Southcott said bailing out the Redcliffe super clinic while abandoning the Sorell super clinic – four years after it was promised – showed the super clinics program was a “shambles from day one”.
“[Ms Roxon] has a lot of explaining to do regarding the Redcliffe GP super clinic, and I call on her to do exactly that by making a full disclosure on the financial issues that have been plaguing this clinic,” Dr Southcott said in a statement.
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10th Oct 2011
11:05pm