Strong Health System
Over the past three years, the Queensland Government has delivered record health budgets to enhance health services, facilities and health promotion programs to keep Queenslanders of all ages healthy and active.
With planned expenditure of over
$3 billion from 2020-21 to 2023-24, Queenslanders across the state will see expansions and upgrades to their local health infrastructure.
COVID-19 has strengthened the collaboration and cooperation between the primary care and hospital sectors. We will leverage our success in managing the pandemic to grow job opportunities, improve liveability, attract investment and maintain our local capacity to meet healthcare needs, including emerging mental health issues.
The Queensland Government has taken key actions as part of the Queensland Health COVID-19 Response Plan, including:
- expanding fever clinics, contact tracing, intensive care and emergency department capacity, and acute care services for remote communities
- fast-tracking the development of a COVID-19 vaccine by supporting University of Queensland researchers
- providing grants to 130 communitybased health service groups – including community mental health groups – to ensure vital services can continue
- providing over $21 million to combat the spread of COVID-19 amongst First Nations Queenslanders.
We also delivered a range of initiatives to ensure continued distribution of essential supplies, such as PPE and food and grocery products.
Critical to this work was the establishment of the Essential Goods Supply Committee in March 2020. The committee brought together a wide range of industry and government stakeholders to share important information, address supply blockages caused by unprecedented consumer demand for staple food and grocery products, and enable manufacturers and suppliers to connect directly to address emerging challenges.
This included changes to operating hours of loading docks and distribution centres to keep our supermarket shelves stocked and temporary use licences that have allowed a brewer to pivot to the production of hand sanitiser. Necessary changes to the planning framework were made in March 2020 to support business transition and innovation and ensure access to critical supplies.