OAKESHOTT INDEPENDENT
HEALTH CONCERNS FOR RURAL AND REGIONAL NSW. SURGE BED STRATEGY IS A SMOKESCREEN
Reports of Area Health Budgets being over-run throughout the eight area health services in NSW should present major concerns for the campaign to see the Port Macquarie Hospital upgrade to deal with current demand, Independent MP for Port Macquarie, Robert Oakeshott, said today.
"Our emergency department was privately built in 1992 expecting to hold a maximum load of 13,000 presentations a year. Last year, the hospital dealt with 28,000 presentations and an expanded facility is desperately needed, Mr Oakeshott said.
"However, all this is thrown into jeopardy when the Area Health Service budgets throughout NSW have been blown in the majority of regions. It is in jeopardy when $700 million is expected to be spent on North Shore Hospital alone, and it is in jeopardy when the health sector unions are calling for a 20 per cent wage increase across the board, said Mr Oakeshott.
"Surge beds are a smokescreen created by the reality of inadequate infrastructure. It is my understanding that any new money for any bed strategy is metro-centric, with not one cent going to an Area Health Service in rural or regional NSW, and this includes the one million residents within the North Coast Area Health Service, said Mr Oakeshott.
"It is my understanding that the Government is in denial about growth on the North Coast and they are willing to treat the area like some Siberian outpost. Whether the Labor Government is doing this due to the high number of safe National Party seats is unclear, but it is certainly "corridor gossip" that is repeated all too often, Mr Oakeshott said.
"Whatever the reason for the Labor Party strategy of ignoring the North Coast, this is placing enormous pressure on our level of clinical excellence and a breaking point will come. We need capital works on the Mid-North Coast to continue, and the number one (1) priority identified by the Area Health Service is Port Macquarie Hospital. I am deeply concerned that the State Budget has dried up however, and no capital works will be taking place anywhere on the North Coast, with minimal new works throughout regional and rural NSW, Mr Oakeshott said today.
Thursday, 31 January 2008