The Emergency Accommodation Service helps families who are struggling financially stay close to loved ones who are being treated in the trauma and intensive care units of Gold Coast University Hospital.
Here at Gold Coast Hospital Foundation, we recognise it can be distressing for families who suddenly find themselves displaced by unexpected medical hardship. Not having the financial means to afford accommodation escalates an already critical situation that impacts health staff and the patient.
The Foundation’s vital service provides more than 600 nights of emergency accommodation close to the hospital, helping approximately 300 family members who can focus on the recovery of their loved ones in hospital. The Foundation is supported by an amazing work force of Gold Coast Health social workers who refer families and work so hard to ensure positive outcomes are achieved.
The Emergency Accommodation Service has continued to expand since launching in September 2015, helping even more families of patients critically unwell in hospital.
The service supports patient families in the following hospital units:
- Trauma
- Intensive care
- Neonatal intensive care
- Children’s critical care
- Postnatal mental health units
“We don’t know what we would have done without the Foundation.”
When Beaudesert local Josh was left fighting for his life after a serious car accident, the Foundation assisted his family with accommodation near the hospital.
Josh can’t remember the day he was rushed to hospital for life-saving surgery, but it’s something his family will never forget. On that day, Josh’s mum Angela received the devastating phone call that her 19-year-old son had been seriously injured in a road accident at Yatala on his way to work.
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