Illawarra State MPs met with the NSW Minister for Health today and demanded clarity on the future of Shellharbour and Port Kembla public hospitals by the end of Parliamentary sittings on 30 November 2017.
Under recent questioning the Minister revealed the Expressions of Interest for the Shellharbour Public Hospital redevelopment project were still under consideration.
The Illawarra MPs reported to the Minister that the Illawarra community was sick of the uncertainty about the future of Shellharbour and Port Kembla Public Hospitals given that each of the other hospitals slated for privatisation more than a year ago had already had decisions about their future announced.
The meeting comes on the back of well attended local rallies, community events and meetings of staff and patients, all of whom have consistently delivered the clear message that doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, patients and their carers do not want services at Shellharbour or Port Kembla Public Hospitals privatised.
It also follows today’s revelation that the Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast, Gareth Ward MP, has finally joined the bandwagon of widespread community opposition in the region to the Government’s privatisation plans after a year of defending his Government’s plans.
The Illawarra region now stands united in the call for the Government to drop its privatisation plans for Shellharbour Hospital.
The message to the Minister is now very clear: keep our hospitals in public hands.
Quotes attributable to Anna Watson MP:
"The community is sick of waiting for the Minister to make up his mind. The people of Shellharbour have spoken, and they want their hospital kept in public hands.
"The Minister needs to introduce transparency into this process. He cannot go on with endless consultation periods and no concrete plan as to how to keep Shellharbour Hospital public.
"It would be cruel for this Government to force the staff at Shellharbour and Port Kembla public hospitals to spend another Christmas feeling insecure about the future of their employment."
Quotes attributable to Paul Scully MP:
"For more than a year staff and patients in the Illawarra have lived with the uncertainty over the future of Shellharbour and Port Kembla Public Hospitals.
"Time and time again our community have made their views clear – they want their public hospitals and the services provided in them to remain in public hands.
"Once again in the Illawarra we are being treated like second-class citizens with the issue being resolved in other hospitals while we wait – this wilful neglect of the views of our community needs to stop and the Government needs to abandon its plans like it has in Goulburn, Bowral and Wyong and it needs to do it now."
Quotes attributable to Ryan Park MP:
"It’s time the Minister comes clean and rule out the privatisation of this critically important piece of infrastructure"
"The community and health professionals have made it clear that this privatisation doesn’t make sense for the delivery of health care in our region"
