Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The following is a letter from one of my constituents, Bianca, from Batemans Bay, and it will illustrate why I was so anxious to get the Prime Minister to visit Gilmore and inspect the Shoalhaven and Batemans Bay hospitals. My constituent’s letter is in reference to Batemans Bay hospital and it reads:

My husband started to have severe chest and abdominal pains late last night.

However he felt reluctant to attend the Bay’s emergency department after hearing bad stories about it, (which given we have only been here 5 weeks is sad in itself).

After some time I finally managed to convince him to go.

I had wanted to try to drive to Moruya, however after 5-10 minutes my husband’s pain became unbearable and he was quickly becoming very distressed.

We had no option but to attend Batemans Bay Hospital.

When we entered the hospital, we sat and waited to be let in for about 10 minutes, however no one came to the front and seemed to not even realize we were there.

I then walked straight in to find my husband pale and panicked.

I would soon realize that no one came because there was no one to come!

What followed over the next 24 hours was nothing short of disgraceful.

We encountered a lost vial of blood, which turned up next to a newborn baby (I can only imagine how her poor parents felt about that).

One doctor and one nurse trying to treat and triage everyone that came in.

We saw patients dismissed, including one with whooping cough, purely for what seemed lack of time to bother.

The story goes on as it is far too long to explain but came to a head when we were told there was no ultra sound machine available at the Bay and my husband would need to be transported with another patient to Moruya for the scan.

Mind you, in an ambulance driven by a man talking on his mobile phone.

I am appalled that any hospital in 2009 and in Australia could be without an ultra sound machine.

Are funds so tight that even vital equipment and staff are sacrificed?

Clearly we can afford to build a fancy new training facility but not afford more important things?

How can we train new practitioners if we don’t even have the money for the basics?

Clearly there are no where near enough staff to man the E.D and I am so sad that a community like this is willing to accept that level of cover.

Well I’m not and although I have no idea what I can do to help, I want to back you in your request for Kevin Rudd to visit the hospital and see first hand what the staff are dealing with and give funding to right the problems!

I have spent the last 12 hours trying to think of possible ways to help the situation and while I am only one person, there must be a way.

I am a mother and need to feel safe. After the last 24 hours I feel far from it.

My apologies for the long email but I feel so upset at the moment, knowing my husband is lying in a hospital bed, in a hospital that is nothing more than a medical centre.

It’s not a good thought.

The Prime Minister did accept my invitation to visit but unfortunately he sent someone else in his place and did not get the chance to see for himself why emails like this arrive on my table. He also missed out on seeing what the hospitals have become after 14 years of incompetent administration by the discredited state Labor government. Furthermore, he missed out on seeing how the Shoalhaven is doomed to the same downhill spiral of neglect without urgent intervention from the federal government.

And just in case anyone thinks I am being over the top, it should be noted that operations have actually had to be cancelled at Shoalhaven hospital in the last week and intensive care patients transferred as far away as Newcastle because a piece of life saving machinery, the hospital’s compressor, which was manufactured in 1958, finally gave up. Here we are dealing with vital equipment that belongs in a museum, not a hospital. The situation is simply not good enough and I, like my constituent Bianca, will not accept it.

I call on the Prime Minister to deliver on his word and see firsthand what I am talking about. Providing the funds for a new compressor in Shoalhaven hospital to put an end to this farce and get our local patients back here would be a good start. It is something the state Labor government should be doing instead of the federal government.

And, Mr Rudd, we will also be putting in a submission to receive one of the ten regional cancer care centres announced in this year’s budget. In light of our considerable need for this facility, our ageing population and the fact that the local community has itself raised almost $1 million and council will provide suitable land to get a linear accelerator locally, I ask you to look on our submission favourably. It is simply unacceptable that cancer sufferers are currently forced to travel to Wollongong, Campbelltown or Sydney in their condition and often by way of a community bus as there is no public transport available and if the train is accessible for some, services are extremely limited and unreliable.

I am very proud of the way in which the entire community has rallied together on this issue. The people of Gilmore, and that is all the community groups without exception, have demonstrated their incredible generosity by raising almost $1 million, which I cannot help but mention again. I think this speaks very loudly and clearly about the widely acknowledged need for this facility in our area.

In closing I would also like to add how wonderful it is to have the cooperation of all levels of government on this matter in Gilmore. Shoalhaven Mayor Paul Green, state member for the South Coast, Shelley Hancock, and I are all working together for the same outcome. (Time expired)