LAWRENCE Springborg is on a mission. Not just to make sure that Queensland's Health Department works effectively, but also efficiently - and perhaps more challengingly, within budget.
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In the Health Minister's lexicon is ending wasteful and unnecessary spending, and ensuring that the systems needed to run the mega-department actually work.
He says much of that waste has been caused by the centralisation of the health system, and a preoccupation with an ever growing bureaucracy that has come at the expense of patient care.
The losers in centralisation have been patients in rural and remote areas, where lack of funding is resulting in some hospitals literally being left to fall apart, he said.
And while the billion-dollar health payroll scandal remains the single biggest challenge facing the department, he says there are plenty of other areas that need urgent attention.
Telehealth, a $300 million system introduced by the Bligh government, uses online video technology to allow patients in smaller hospitals access to specialists in major centres.
The big advantage is that patients can often remain within their own community and are not forced away from their families or work.
"There is nothing wrong with the equipment. The equipment is tremendous and we want this system to operate to its obvious potential," Mr Springborg said.
"Its just that no one bothered to work out how the system would actually work."
"In many cases they are just glorified dust collectors when they should be part of the solution to substantially improving to delivery of health services and patient care."
The Rural Telehealth Service involves a large digital television with a camera and microphone attached.
The stand-alone unit can be used by groups, or even wheeled to a patient's bedside.
Normanton is one of seven evaluation sites around Queensland. The other six sites are Alpha, Eidsvold, Moura, Kowanyama, Roma and Bedourie.
A demonstration of the online technology proved very popular with community representatives.
Normanton Hospital health care coordinator Midge Beard, who also has breast cancer, said she was excited that the use of telehealth could reduce frequency of trips to meet with specialists.
"Sometimes we are travelling for 10 hours for a 10-minute consultation," Mrs Beard said.
John Turner described it as a real breakthrough and very well suited to elderly people, who often found the travel involved in getting to major centres to be very stressful.
"Travel can be very hard on people, especially when they are sick," Mr Turner said.
In Normanton, Telehealth will initially be used to deliver renal, oncology, pre-operative and paediatric consultations.
Mr Springborg said he was also determined to reduce the Health Department as a cash cow.
"Private enterprise can build a hospital for the equivalent of about $1m a bed," Mr Springborg said.
"But for the Health Department, the cost of the equivalent facility is $2m a bed.
"Why the government should pay double or more for exactly the same thing is something every taxpayer should be concerned about, because it is money that does not go into patient care."
