NewZ NewZ with a Zeal
In August 2018 I attended a meeting of the FEC (Farrer electorate) in Albury for the federal pre-selection process. Sussan Ley was unanimously selected. At that meeting I was approached by a Liberal party senior member who told me I would be upset as $50 million had just been handed to Tumut Hospital and Deniliquin had missed out. Prior to this meeting, other health advocates and I had spent several years lobbying for better health services at Deniliquin including a multi-million dollar upgrade we assumed would be between $50-$80 million. I had spoken to the then Premier Gladys Berejiklian on the phone in November 2017, and during that conversation she agreed with me that Deniliquin’s situation regarding lack of health services, particularly for children, was unacceptable. She asked for further info to be sent to her office and to the NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, which we supplied. A few months later I had a phone conversation with Daryl Maguire, the then member for Wagga, as we appeared to have had a lull in proceedings. During our conversation he assured me he had a direct line to the premier and would push our cause. At the time I thought that was nice of him. The reality was he was then stood down and a by-election was called. It is my belief, and it was further reinforced at the preselection for Farrer meeting, that the funding that should have gone to the Deniliquin district was reassigned to Tumut in a bid to save the seat of Wagga for the Coalition. They failed to hold the seat, and in retrospect they may have held the seat of Murray if instead they had funded Deniliquin Hospital as they should have. When we look at the statistics, that is where the money should have been directed. Tumut sits 101km from Wagga and 153km from Canberra, which both have major hospitals Deniliquin sits 265kms from Wagga and 211km from Albury — our nearest NSW hospitals. According to the 2016 Census, the population was 6230 in Tumut and 7862 in Deniliquin. The information (a 42-page document detailing health inadequacies in this area) was also sent to Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, The Rural Health Commissioner, the president of the Australian Medical Association and John Barilaro the Deputy Premier, who earlier this year stated on the front page of the Sydney papers that he had ‘‘no idea’’ of the dire situation of health in rural NSW. He also met with us in 2019 and we discussed with him that exact issue, so he did have prior knowledge of the deficiencies. We are about to start the process of further elections — both federal, and then state. I would warn the community to not listen to these pre-election promises, and instead urge our council to demand a new or updated facility that is capable of servicing both Deniliquin and the surrounding local government areas that adjoin Edward River Council. We were once a 109-bed facility with major operating and emergency units. We are now a 16-bed facility with bugger all else. Our excellent maternity unit caters to a wide area, especially during lockdowns. Not counting delivery suites, it is a two-bed facility when once it was ten plus the delivery suites. In times of border lockdowns, we are looking at servicing up to 30,000 and our hospital is not up to it. Wagga has had more than $sfr1/2 billion spent on it, and that is where they are currently sending us. Yet there is no public transport and, after being discharged, we are supposed to find our own way home! That is not a service, that is a challenge The people of this area have been hard done by at the hands of NSW governments — both Labor and Liberal — in the downgrading of Health services. Labor started the downturn under the Carr Government, and continued to free fall under the disastrous Keneally reign. The Coalition let it keep sliding, as they were never given adequate usage figures and information on services from MLHD as we had been directed to use cross border facilities, therefore we had no substantial footprint. I note that the new Premier Dominic Perrottet has claimed that the health services in rural NSW are among the best in the world. I challenge Premier Perrottet and Deputy Premier Peter Toole to come out here and meet with me, as I have been advocating for seven years on health services in MLHD and I probably know more than his health minister does about what’s needed and what’s not needed. I would like the electors to remember that unbeknownst to them, our Federal Member Sussan Ley has worked hard in the background to see better services and continues to do so. She has always been available to speak to me and to suggest avenues to follow to improve services. I have spoken to our National Senator Perin Davey and found she has a very sympathetic ear regarding the health issue, and is continuing to pursue the issues. Our council was far too late off the mark in acknowledging the shocking state of health services. I also acknowledge the input of the sitting NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton and her staff, who urged the current inquiry into rural health to come to fruition. The fact that these three elected representatives are already on our side to achieve better health services should have kick started the current council into hammering the state government and achieving a deal, well before the next elections come up. We want that deal sealed before we get a barrel full of non-committal, empty promises from whoever is running as our upgrade should have been a no brainer years ago. Less than $7 million dollars has been spent on our facility since 1980, and half of that was thanks to health advocates like me hard lobbying at the last election. Most of that funding still has not been finalised three years later. I urge all constituents to call, email or write to the Premier, the health minister and Edward River Council and complain about the lack of facilities, and the dilapidated state of the existing hospital. Constituents in our surrounding LGAs also need to do this, as you rely on the service provided by Deniliquin to this forgotten and overlooked region of NSW. It could take up to 18 months to fix the significant cracking found on all 12 Sydney trams on the inner west light rail. Ex-NSW police minister Troy Grant’s father could have had an “alcoholic blackout” during a fatal crash, with his trial told a scan showed no brain abnormality. An 87 year-old woman was transferred to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne following a crash on the Riverina Highway at Deniliquin on Saturday. While police are still reviewing dash cam footage, they believe the woman drove in front of an overtaking… Pfizer pop-up clinics will be back in the local area next week, but this time in the form of outreach clinics to the Edward River Council villages. The aim is to reach those members of the community who have not yet been able to find the time to get… The outbreak across the Murrumbidgee Local Health District has been on a subtle decline since Friday. MLHD recorded a total 131 new COVID-19 cases between Friday and Monday, including 26 yesterday. Of those, 14 were Albury residents, eight were…
