Doomadgee residents are celebrating a win after a 4G radio cell tower was recently installed at the local health centre.
Doomadgee Health Centre director of nursing Nazihah Nida Asgar said the upgrade would not only help residents in the remote Indigenous community keep in contact with family, but also assist with staff retention for organisations like the health centre.
The tower was funded through a $120,000 partnership between Queensland Health and Telstra.
Before the tower was installed, Doomadgee residents were only able to access the 3G network in some areas of town, with service dropping dramatically inside any buildings.
Ms Asgar said the upgrade would help her attract and retain staff.
"As remote health workers, you know, we get lots of new graduates who are doing their first stint, or people who come for short contracts," she said.
"It has been difficult for them to get hold of, or keep in contact with their families.
"So this now enables us to be able to call our family members, even FaceTime them, and access to the internet in our leisure times."
Ms Asgar said in the past, on-call medical workers were confined to small areas where they had phone signal.
"We needed mobile reception for that [on-call staff], you know, it limited their leisure activities - you can't leave the house to go for a walk," she said.
"We needed clear communication range out of the Wi-Fi and the connection is not limited to the hospital, but to the surrounding community as well."
In addition to benefits for staff, Ms Asgar said it was also vital for the community and patient care for patients and doctors to have the ability to communicate.
