The North West Hospital and Health Service say the Julia Creek Hospital is now open and staffed by nurses 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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The hospital has been downgraded to Level 1 since late last year due to the inability to attract staff in Covid times.
It remains at Level 1 as it has no permanent doctors but a new Director of Nursing started in April and the NWHHS said it can now accommodate four to six permanent residential, palliative or respite clients with a visiting GP conducting a regular review.
"Initially these beds may be filled with clients from other towns but beds will always be available for our local community members as soon as they are needed," the NWHHS said.
The practice of Townsville-based GP Dr Michael Clements will deliver services to Julia Creek two days a week for a minimum of six months working closely with the Hospital.
The NWHHS said Dr Clements would provide GP services, telehealth and video appointments when the GPs were not in town while emergency presentations would continue to be serviced by Cloncurry and Mount Isa personnel as well as Queensland Ambulance Service and Telehealth Emergency Management Support Unit (TEMSU).
The search goes on for a permanent doctor for the community to take it back to Level 2 though that may not happen until international borders reopen.
New NWHHS board administrator Michael Walsh said the challenge Julia Creek Hospital had was the same for all industries in all rural areas.
"Because we haven't got people coming into Australia from overseas we have less access to skilled people," Mr Walsh said.
"My job is not to recruit and I am working with the executive to remove roadblocks but it is hard to get people."
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