The Pormpuraaw Primary Health Care Centre takes shape earlier this year. Photo: Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service.
Patients will begin using the new $35.4 million Pormpuraaw Primary Health Care Centre early this month.
Work on the extensive Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service facility revamp in the remote Cape community began in August 2024, after the project was greenlit by the previous Queensland Labor Government.
The new healthcare centre includes an emergency section equipped with a procedure and resuscitation room, a treatment room, mobile x-ray facilities and a decontamination shower.
There’s six dedicated outpatient consultation rooms to meet future demand and the needs of visiting health partners such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).
The facility also has a dental suite, pathology room for specimen collection, a medical records area, an enclosed ambulance bay and a “culturally appropriate” morgue.
Staff will begin assisting patients in coming days.
Labor Opposition Leader Steven Miles visited the Pormpuraaw Primary Health Care Centre last week.
“This is an incredible milestone for this really special community, a remote community on the western Cape,” he said.
“I’ve been coming here since 2015, when I was first made the community champion (as part of the Community Champion Program).
Labor Opposition Leader Steven Miles at the new $35.4 million Pormpuraaw Primary Health Care Centre, which is about to open to patients. Photo: Supplied.
“Through that entire time, what locals have said to me is that they want a modern, fit-for-purpose health facility, and that’s what they will get with this brand-new clinic.
“It’s like having a hospital here in community, an ambulance bay, recess beds, treatment spaces, space for the RFDS and other visiting doctors to use, a new radiography room, dental chairs, even a new pharmacy and medical records space.
“It’s exactly what this community deserves, and I hope that it helps to attract the healthcare workforce that this community needs as well.
“The old clinic was very old and run-down, a bit of a rabbit warren, and not big enough for the needs of the community. This new space feels like any new hospital anywhere else in Queensland. It looks fantastic.
Steven Miles meets staff at the new health centre. Photo: Supplied.
“It’s also fully fitted out with telehealth facilities so that the hardworking medical staff here, if they need help in the resus bay or in their treatment spaces, they can call through to Cairns Base Hospital or one of our big tertiary hospitals in Brisbane to get advice from specialists.”
Pormpuraaw used the existing centre while the upgraded facility was built by Cairns-based company WIP Constructions.
