Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Health services

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:59): On Saturday I attended a rally attended by thousands in Mansfield. It was a rally organised by local GPs, who are really concerned about the government’s plans to amalgamate rural and regional health services. This rally, which was organised by Dr Graham Slaney, Dr Ben Nally, Dr Will Twycross and others, had the support of Sarah Lieber, a nurse unit manager from Mansfield District Health; Peter Howarth, who is a former health administrator, board president and life governor; and many others from the community who came together and collectively said, ‘Hands off our hospital.’ It was such a powerful force, given the speeches by the GPs, the doctors and the nurses who were there talking about their hospital – what it means to their community.

As they know, as I know and as others know right across this state, when these hospital amalgamations happen – because the government is starving hospitals of their funding, and CEOs are telling me they have had 33 per cent cuts to their funding – the government says it is going back to pre-COVID levels, but it has not factored in the increase in costs and wages since that time and so much more. This was a superb show of community force against the Labor government’s plans to amalgamate our hospitals. I stand with them: hands off our hospitals. All those rural and regional communities will have a loss of services – (Time expired)