Child cancer patients will be the immediate beneficiaries of a $20 million expansion of the Queensland’s Children’s Hospital.
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The 359-bed hospital will eventually gain 30 extra beds in the revamp, with the first phase to deliver six new beds to the hospital's oncology ward.
Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said increasing the number of beds for children with cancer was a priority for the expansion.
“The expansion will allow us to deliver more services to save the lives of more children,” Mr Miles said.
“Oncology has been consistently over capacity, so six additional beds will bring the number of oncology beds to 30.”
The hospital’s head of oncology, Dr Wayne Nicholls, said the extra beds were urgently needed.
“What this means is families who have had a very anxious time in the last year or so when we have had to delay therapy for reasons of capacity will no longer have to face that difficulty,” Dr Nicholls said.
“The benefit of this proposal is we’ll be able to locate oncology services in such a way that we can ensure the clinical care provided is the same as it would be in any part of the hospital.”
The final design of the revamped oncology ward will be determined through consultation with doctors and also the parents of the child patients at the South Brisbane hospital.
One of the parents, Kiralee Hall, said the extra beds would have an immediate impact for the children staying at the hospital.
“Having these extra beds is going to make a huge impact on our lives,” she said.
Mr Miles said the expansion went beyond simply keeping up with population demands.
“The intention was always to expand the hospital in this way,'' he said.
"But this is bringing [the expansion] forward significantly in part to address demand and in part just as an indication of how successful the Queensland Children’s Hospital has been.”
State LNP Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said they welcomed the new beds but the upgrade should have started already.
"Queenslanders were horrified by the sight of kids with cancer being treated in a hospital kitchen last year because of a shortage of oncology beds," Ms Bates said in a statement.
"While today’s announcement is welcome, it seems that these new beds won’t become available for patients until after the next election."
"These beds are needed now and any upgrade should be fast-tracked."
The hospital has been the centre of controversy for the government for all the wrong reasons in recent months, with a furore over its decision to change the name of the facility.
Previously christened the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital by the previous Liberal National Party state government led by Campbell Newman, the Palaszczuk Labor government announced in 2018 it would change the name to simply the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
It has spent around $330,000 on changing signage and branded products since the change, while one of the hospital’s major benefactors recently announced they were removing their support over the saga.
The tender for the expansion is expected to be released in the second half of 2019, with construction to start by early 2020.
