A practical solution to support patients and families, as they endure significant health challenges, is about to open beside Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
The $14m Wishlist Centre will provide vital and comforting facilities including accommodation, space for service provision and commercial tenancies.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor with your name and suburb at Sunshine Coast News via: news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au
Wishlist acting CEO Brendan Hogan said the Sunshine Coast was a rapidly growing community and the demand for health services was equally increasing.
“This is an incredible opportunity to provide a holistic new level of service to patients, through accommodation and complementary health services all under the one roof,” he said.
The Wishlist Centre is four storeys, with two commercial tenancies for health-related services on floor one.
Floor two (the Pavilion) is a combination of areas available to host health-related events, classes and functions, along with communal space for SCUH patients’ family members staying in the 18 accommodation rooms that make up floors three and four.
Space on the Pavilion level can be used by organisations such as Bloomhill Cancer Support to run programs, or TAFE beautician students providing beauty treatments for guests supporting family members being treated at SCUH, and for meditation classes and yoga classes.
“So, it’s really about connecting services and patients with each other, through that central facility,” Mr Hogan said.
“That’s probably the distinguishing part. It’s not just somewhere to stay, it’s somewhere where a more holistic approach to health can provide support.”
Wishlist Centre is located within walking distance of SCUH, especially the Adem Crosby Oncology Centre, providing priceless convenience for patients and their families.
The new facility removes the travel time and stress of the recent past, when some patients staying at Wishlist’s Reed House in Nambour had to be shuttled back and forth to SCUH.
Mr Hogan noted that the centre has been made possible through “community spirit and generosity”, including $12m in federal government funding, $2m from Sunshine Coast philanthropists Roy and Nola Thompson, plus several millions in corporate, individual, family and community donations.
Read our previous related story: Philanthropists Roy and Nola Thompson donate $2m towards new Wishlist Centre
“It’s the community rising up – as the Sunshine Coast community always does – to deliver something quite remarkable,” Mr Hogan said.
Wishlist Centre complements the charity’s existing family and patient accommodation: Reed House, which has 20 rooms based near Nambour Hospital, and Wishlist House, Birtinya, with six rooms.
For more information about Wishlist, visit the website.
SUBSCRIBE here now for our FREE news feed, direct to your inbox daily!
