Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Today I'm talking about one of the fastest growing rural shires in Victoria, Mansfield. A special call-out goes to Mansfield District Hospital, which was built in 1840 and continues to provide the population with wonderful services and leading innovation, including in midwifery. The hospital has increased its take-up by five per cent, to 4,000 patients admitted per year. That's fantastic when the local population of Mansfield itself is only 3,000. So today I give a real call-out to the CEO, Cameron Butler; the director of clinical services, Margaretanne Hood; the board chairman, Phillip Officer; the 210 permanent full-time staff who manage the three urgent care beds and the 72 aged-care beds; and the volunteer hospital auxiliary, led by Anne Mudge, which last year raised $76,000 to provide equipment. The hospital also has two associated clinical practices, which employ 13 doctors and associated staff.

I have been really blessed this week to have three volunteers working in my office. I've got Rhonda here, sitting in the advisory desk, and Maz Dowling, who helped me with this particular speech. I'd like to do a call-out to give a sense of what makes my electorate so special. It's community people getting behind their health services, coming to Canberra, learning how things work, helping write speeches and then taking the message back to their community that show that democracy is alive and well in Australia.

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