The start of 2019 has been a busy one for Southern Queensland Rural Health.

The SQRH Toowoomba office now has a permanent home at the Baillie Henderson Hospital campus. Thanks to the incredible support of Darling Downs Health in providing a building for SQRH operations and a significant financial contribution towards the refurbishment, we now have an excellent training facility for students on rural health placement in Toowoomba. This is an excellent example of the collaborative arrangements between our consortium organisations. An official opening will be occurring in the coming months. The next major project for SQRH is the design and construction of a Clinical Training Facility in Charleville. Planning is well underway for the facility which will be built on the grounds of the Charleville Hospital.

SQRH values the goodwill and collaborative spirit in which various stakeholders have engaged with us since our inception. The recent signing of formal MOU’s with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Charleville and Western Area Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health will improve the learning experiences for students on outback placement and go a long way to contributing to the future health workforce in the region. In Toowoomba, St Vincent’s Private Hospital Toowoomba have offered placements to Allied Health students for the first time, and we are extremely thankful for the high quality learning opportunities provided by the St Vincent’s Allied Health team.

In July we will be opening the SQRH Health and Wellness Clinic in Toowoomba. The clinic will service individuals with rising risk factors of chronic disease with services provided by students under the supervision of qualified health professionals. This inter-professional service will provide enhanced learning opportunities for students from physiotherapy, exercise physiology, nursing, dietetics, psychology and social work whilst providing important health services to the community. The clinic will operate out of Darling Downs Health’s, Health and Wellness Centre at the Baillie Henderson Hospital Campus.