General News
29 May, 2024
A home away from home: remote patients call for funding solution
The future of Alabaster House, which provides a crucial service, is under threat
The operators of Townsville-based Alabaster House have been invited to provide a written funding submission to the State Government after a sustained lobbying campaign by Member for Traeger
Robbie Katter.
The future of the house – which provides accommodation services to many Gulf and North West community members travelling to Townsville for medical attention – has been under threat after founders Robyn and Graham Girdler announced their intention to retire.
The pair are currently working with a local agent to find an appropriate charitable organisation that could continue the service they founded in 2007, which now provides rooms for up to 14,000 clients each year.
Mrs Girdler said Alabaster House had been entirely self-funded for 15 years, with the couple frequently dipping into their personal savings to keep the service operating. The first small government financial assistance came only last financial year.
Mrs Girdler said it was hoped government funding would assist in the effort to find a new operator for the house as it would provide an income stream to assist in keeping the doors open.
Speaking in State Parliament last week, Mr Katter called on Queensland Minister for Health Shannon Fentiman to commit to ongoing funding to ensure Alabaster House will remain open.
The Miles Government has until June 20 to provide a written response to parliament.
Mrs Girdler said soon after the Question on Notice was lodged in parliament, she was contacted by a representative from Queensland Health who requested she write a formal funding submission.
She said she was currently calculating the exact amount of funding that would be required to provide a stable financial footing for any future operator of the service.
Mrs Girdler said she expects to finalise the submission for Queensland Health and Minister Fentiman by the end of this week.
“It is a very positive step forward and it gives us a lot of hope that a solution can be found,” Mrs Girdler said.
“Our service has become part of the medical infrastructure in Townsville and North Queensland and we want to see it continue.
“We want to ensure our clients can continue to have somewhere to stay and the same assistance we have been providing.”
Normanton resident Gibson Charger has been based at Alabaster House for more than one year.
The 63-year-old said he has to undergo kidney dialysis treatment at Townsville University Hospital three times per week.
Mr Charger said the self-contained units at Alabaster House had enabled him to bring his partner Noelene Besley and his daughter Rekia, 13, to live with him.
“I am on a walker at the moment and can’t move around easily so having my family with me to cook and clean and support me helps a lot,” he said.
Mr Charger’s sister and fellow Normanton resident Joy Murray said Alabaster House provided a safe and reliable location for people from across the Gulf who were unfamiliar with Townsville city and did not have family support nearby.
“You often don’t realize how many people from the Gulf are at Alabaster House until you visit there and you see people from your community meeting up and checking up on each other,” she told North West Weekly.
“There are a lot of pregnant women who have their babies in Townsville and need this service and there are a lot of people who go there because the medical services are not available in their own communities.
“Alabaster House is very important in our community.”
Mr Katter said sustainable and ongoing funding needed to be secured to allow the Girdlers to retire with the assurance that Alabaster House would continue.
“If this service didn’t exist, you would be into the tens of millions of dollars for a government institutional-type facility to provide the same,” he said.
“For years now Queensland Health has been all too happy to benefit from the Girdlers’ thankless work.
“With their well-deserved retirement coming up it is about time Queensland Health stump up to provide ongoing funds to keep services ongoing at Alabaster House under a new operator.
“I continue to seek a commitment from the government to sustain funding for this essential medical service.”
