The first patient admitted to QEII Hospital’s new beds in Ward 4A was 93-year-old, Dawn Campbell from Carindale.
Ms Campbell was treated to a Queen’s welcome at the shiny new 28-bed ward with a cheering guard of honour at 8:20am on Monday 27 November and immediately declared she might come back!
“It was such a royal welcome, nothing like that has ever happened before.”
Ms Campbell has had a long history with hospitals, starting her nursing training at Ipswich Hospital all the way back in 1949, followed by a long history in midwifery, child welfare and missionary placements in Nepal. She retired from nursing after many years in aged care in 1990.
But it was heart trouble that rekindled her association with hospitals, and it’s been a 30-year journey she didn’t expect.
“I had my first heart attack in 1993 and I never expected to live this long,” she said. “I told my family on the weekend, my goal now is to outlive Aunty Bessie who lived to 95!”
The Ward 4A clinical team were at the ready to accept the first patient bright and early today, having been trained in areas all over the hospital in readiness for go-live of the new ward.
Ward 4A is a General Medicine Unit which will play an essential role in managing the demand for patient care in the local QEII community and across Metro South Health.