Sick Gold Coast toddler to return home (AAP)

AAP A Gold Coast toddler who has spent her life in hospitals is being transferred closer to home.

At 14 months old, little Alliyah Broadby has seen more hospitals - and spent more time in them - than most adults.

In fact, the only time the bubbly tot spent the night away from a hospital and at her family's Gold Coast home was on her birthday, when a nurse had to stay with her overnight.

But that's all about to change for Alliyah, who has suffered a range of breathing, lung and heart complications since birth.

From next month, Alliyah will be able to have her treatments on the Gold Coast instead of Brisbane. This means she can spend more time at home.

And her parents Mark and Kathryn Broadby couldn't be happier.

"When people look at her, they just see her as being a little girl apart from the trach in her neck," Mrs Broadby said.

Alliyah has had a tracheostomy, a surgical hole made in her neck, so she can be attached to a respirator when she sleeps because her breathing stops.

The Broadbys have had to take shifts staying with Alliyah at the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane, while the other looks after the couple's other four children on the Gold Coast.

"We're her lifeline," Mrs Broadby told reporters.

"No nurse can put the time and effort that we have into her."

Mrs Broadby said her daughter's cheeky personality, which is coupled with a disarming smile, often belies the full extent of her medical troubles.

"Sometimes people go `it doesn't look like there's much wrong with her'. But she is a complex-needs child and she does require constant supervision."

Mrs Broadby wrote to Premier Campbell Newman earlier this year about her daughter's condition, which prompted a transfer plan to the Gold Coast University Hospital.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the transfer would come about in stages but would likely be underway in September.

"The important thing about returning Alliyah to home is that she will be able to be monitored at the Gold Coast University Hospital," he said.

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