It’s been 30 years since the Redland Hospital took on its first patient – a child – on July 1.
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On that day, 36 more patients were seen and the hospital admitted its first four patients.
At the end of the month, 108 patients were seen and within a year, this number grew to 35,492 patients with more than 2000 admitted and 502 operations performed in theatre.
It was an auspicious beginning to the hospital which celebrated this milestone with staff, many having worked there since the beginning.
Emergency nurse Tracy Chalmers described a hospital which worked with the bare essentials.
“When the hospital first opened we used to do a lot including plastering and suturing, because there wasn’t the staff. There was usually one doctor and one nurse on a shift so you did what you had to do. We had no clerical assistance so we did all the paperwork as well as nursing. It was very different,” she said.
“Doctors made decisions based on clinical assessments rather than on tests and there was no after-hours pathology or X-ray. Now they run lots of tests before patients are admitted or discharged.”
Fellow nurse Liz Kermond said innovation was required to fill the gaps.
“ Everybody was chosen for different reasons and brought with them different skills. Because of that, I think we were all very adaptive and respectful of each other’s differences. Our nursing skills have become more broad over the years,” she said.
The concept for a community hospital for Redland was first flagged in 1980 and the community played a significant role in driving the appeal to establish health services on this site.
In the first year, the hospital auxiliary, with the help of local service clubs and community groups raised $29,000 for the purchase of medical equipment.
A significant milestone was the official opening of the new $47m Redland hospital in 1999 which expanded the hospital to 144 beds and enabled birthing services to commence. Paediatrics followed shortly after. Now the hospital is a 222 bed facility that serves a population of 152,000.
“We see more than 27,000 admissions and 56,000 Emergency Department presentations and we are keeping the population booming with around 2000 babies born at Redland Hospital each year,” Logan Bayside Health Network A/Executive Director Dr Jacinta Powell said.
“Redland Hospital is home to 1000 staff who embody the essence of what it means to be part of the Redland community and we look forward to the future chapters we will contribute to the community as we continue to expand in both size and clinical scope.”
This is borne out by emergency nurse Shirley Timmons.
“ I still enjoy nursing. It’s just changed. The old Redland Hospital toughened us, made us become more resilient and made us very competent with our clinical skills. We needed to get bigger and become less of a community hospital and more of a metropolitan hospital because the area has grown.The staff have always got on so well and supported each other and that’s why I think everyone love it so much,” she said.
