Gold Coast Health will continue to deliver its current homecare services to the community beyond September 2019.
We apologise to our consumers and staff for any distress the recent communication of proposed changes to the service may have caused.
We are contracted by the Federal Government to deliver these homecare services under the Commonwealth Home Support Program.
At the request of the Federal Government, Gold Coast Health had started consultation about phasing out the provision of homecare services by transitioning services to local providers by September 2019.
Initial consultation on the proposal wasn’t approved by the health service senior executive and the Health Minister asked that the decision be reviewed when he was made aware of it.
In response to feedback received from key stakeholders, including Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles, Gold Coast Health will now extend the provision of homecare services beyond September 2019, while it remains contracted by the Federal Government.
This means we shall continue to deliver our current homecare services, which are funded by the Federal Government under the Commonwealth Home Support Program.
“We have acknowledged that Gold Coast Health did not provide the Health Minister with an appropriate brief in relation to our proposed changes to homecare services on the Gold Coast by September 2019,” said Chief Executive Ron Calvert.
“I want to apologise to anyone this has caused distress to – especially staff and clients.”
“We regret the Minister was placed in a situation where he was not briefed on the proposed changes.”
Gold Coast Health will write to the more than 2100 people currently using our Homecare and Allied Health Service to assure them their services will remain unchanged under this program.
The Chief Executive will also write to staff in the Homecare and Allied Health Service to assure them that we are committed to meeting our obligations under the Employment Security Policy and to reiterate there would be no forced job losses with the proposed transition of homecare services to alternative local providers when the Federal Government program ends.
