Extract from ABC News
Pensioners concerned over sale of Brisbane dental school, heritage-listed hospital
Updated
Pensioner representatives have warned the sale of the
land and buildings that house Brisbane's dental school and
heritage-listed dental hospital will make it harder for elderly patients
to obtain free treatment.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg
confirmed the adjacent buildings, housing the school and hospital on
Turbot Street in the CBD, would be offered to developers and that an
expression of interest process was days away.The new owners would be asked to honour the hospital's lease, which ends in December 2016, but it was unclear what would happen to services past that date.
The school, run by the University of Queensland (UQ) in the state-owned building, was due to move to a purpose-built facility on its Herston campus in 2015.
The hospital has provided free dental care since it opened in the 1940s.
National Seniors Association spokeswoman Vera Somerwil said some pensioners would be hard pressed to travel if the hospital were moved to an area with poor public transport.
"Access is very important as you get older, particularly with some of the infirmities that some of the older people develop," she said.
"Teeth really start to deteriorate when you get older. If they can't access resources for that, it is going to make it difficult for their overall health.
No asset sale, privatisation: Health Minister
Mr Springborg refused to call the impending change of hands "asset sales"."This is not unusual, this government and the previous government routinely went to market with dozens of pieces of land which were previously schools or health services, with new facilities built in other places," he said.
"Pieces of land or buildings where you may have vacated don't stand idle, I don't think that anybody would support that.
"We're not privatising our public hospital, but who owns the building is a totally different thing."
Deputy Premier and State Development Minister Jeff Seeney said Labor had slated the properties for sale in 2009, but its plan would not have got the best return for taxpayers.
"The process we will announce later this week will protect dental services by allowing time for existing tenants to relocate, providing more modern hospital and training facilities and secure the best deal for the owners of these site - the people of Queensland."
Metro North Hospital and Health Service, which ran the dental hospital, said it had not decided what to do after its lease ended.
Chair Paul Alexander said there were no plans to build a new hospital, but there had been preliminary talks to move to Herston with UQ.
"There will be no lapse in services, we will not in any way reduced dental services," he said.
"It is not unusual for us to move services from one location to another inside the northside of Brisbane, so we will continue to keep looking for what is the best method for us to deliver these services."
It is simply a recipe for its closure or privatisation and that is exactly what the Minister wants.Jo-Ann Miller, Opposition health spokeswoman
Opposition health spokeswoman Jo-Ann Miller said Labor was opposed to any asset sale and believed the hospital would be privatised when Metro North's lease ran out.
"It is not good enough for the minister to hide behind the hospital board," she said.
"It is simply a recipe for its closure or privatisation and that is exactly what the minister wants to happen.
"They don't care about the pensioners and the low income earners."
Concern over unlisted heritage buildings
The school is not heritage listed and would not be offered the same protections as the hospital once it is sold.
The hospital, built in the neo-Georgian style, was established as the cornerstone of the Queensland Government's plan in the 1930s to establish dental services throughout state.
Brisbane Heritage spokesman John MacDonald hoped the building would be kept in its current state.
"We don't want to see heritage-listed buildings locked up and never used again, but their integrity has to be respected," he said.
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