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Thursday, 9 February 2012
Page: 605

Mr CHRISTENSEN (Dawson) (13:57): The Whitsundays is an area with a shortage of GPs as it is right now, and we could lose yet another one, a long-serving and well-respected GP, Dr Paul Joice. And it is all thanks to Queensland Health.

Almost two weeks ago, Queensland Health banned Dr Joice, a local doctor with 33 years service to the community, from providing acute care and from delivering babies in their hospitals, particularly Proserpine Hospital. Why? The answers are very weak. Apparently, he has not seen enough patients in the past year. Maybe it is because he has been busy treating patients in the surgery. Somehow he has forgotten how to treat patients in hospital, and somehow he has forgotten how to deliver babies! What a crock. The real reason, I suspect, is that Dr Joice has been an outspoken critic of Queensland Health, and this is payback by the bullyboys who operate in the upper echelons of that organisation.

The Proserpine community is outraged. I have received letter after letter from residents who have had their babies delivered by Dr Joice, who have had loved ones treated by Dr Joice and who have had lives saved by Dr Joice. I think that heads should roll in this situation. I will be writing to the Queensland Minister for Health and shadow health minister and calling for an independent investigation into this disgraceful treatment of a doctor who should have been given a much better hearing by Queensland Health. They have really done this guy over, and heads should roll.