Arthur Gorrie
A huge increase in ambulance callouts in the area which would be served by a permanent ambulance station at Glenwood is still apparently not enough to justify building one.
State government figures show a 42 per cent rise in ambulance callouts in four years from 2018 to 2022, the numbers rising from 572 to 811.
The figures were obtained from former Health Ministers Steven Miles for the earlier figures and Yvette D’Ath for more recent records.
They include calls to addresses at Anderleigh, Bauple Forest, Glenwood, Gootchie, Gunalda, Kanigan and Neerdie.
Ms D’Ath, who has since been moved in a Cabinet reshuffle, said that from 2019 to 2022, 2867 ambulances were sent to 2547 incidents, some requiring multiple ambulances.
She was responding to a Question on Notice from Gympie MP Tony Perrett on 10 May.
Ms D’Ath, now Attorney General, was responding as Health Minister when she also revealed that ambulances attended 30 patients within Glenwood and surrounding districts during 2022.
Those figures also showed a big increase from 2019 to 2022.
Mr Perrett has been pushing the issue and pressing for a Glenwood ambulance station for more than four years, going back to 28 March 2019.
“We all know that minutes count in saving lives and an ambulance station nearby can help wipe out those crucial minutes.,” he said in 2019.
Dr Miles, who was then in charge as Minister, declined to express support for a permanent Glenwod station, a situation which Mr Perrett says has not changed.