The Beagle Editor,
The ex-Health Minister dropped in with the Mayor of Bega and the previous Local Member on March 1, to 'announce' the start (?) of the new hospital.
But they continued to say NO to Local Radiotherapy!
The reason offered this time around for denying our region its well attested need for Local Radiotherapy Services (LRS) was not just, as before, that demand or population base did not justify it, but rather clinical staff with relevant training could not be found (in time): All the hallmarks of someone who has picked another lame excuse out of the general grab-bag of hollow answers to make both the problem and community healthcare advocates go away.
Why and how is it then that other areas in regional NSW are busy getting on with, and are perfectly capable of, building and planning their own LRS centres, some with even lesser populations than ours?
By what light does this also allow us to assess the relative competence and commitment of our own Regional Health District executive administrators (SNSWLHD) against others?
If the data is as conclusive as they purport, why are they so extraordinarily shy about sharing that information ahead of the elections with those it most concerns and who pay the wages? Could it possibly tell a story inconvenient, even possibly embarrassing, to the repeatedly negative line taken by those parties thus far on LRS provision?
And where exactly has the Consultant’s report disappeared to which NSW Health Minister heir-presumptive Bronwyn Taylor made so much image-building mileage of commissioning last year?
This is not a trite game of further adorning egos and self-image in the political arena, but about the life and death issues of an entire community’s fundamental health and welfare in which each life is precious. That is not political.
Mylene Boulting
ONE- One New Eurobodalla Level 4 Regional hospital
