An acute care ward at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital is going to be set aside for military patients. A military surgical team will be embedded at the RBWH to maintain their acute-care skills and be available for rapid deployment overseas.
The ADF intends to provide medical officers with specialist training and establish centres of excellence such as a rehabilitation facility to better support wounded personnel. The rehabilitation and mental health services are experiencing the biggest changes partly in response to the effect Afghanistan is having on the force.
Major-General Paul Alexander head of the Joint Health Command says: We have sufficient health assets but I want to increase even further the mental health and rehabilitation assets we have.
Defence is also funding the appointment of a chair of military surgery at the University of Queensland’s School of Medicine and Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health. It will allow for a higher standard of research to be conducted on military trauma and medicine.