It looks as though the owner of that smiling face on the election posters popping up around the Southern Highlands is not prepared to commit herself, her Party or their proposed health policy to the people of the Southern Highlands. Here is her comment to a forum held at the Moss Vale TAFE on Monday February 21st and reported in the SHN by Ben McLellan today:
Goulburn Liberal MP Pru Goward could only point to her party's strategic land use policy, which she claims will stop mining in the Highlands, as the only real indication the electorate is on the Coalition's radar.
The opposition is pledging money for hospitals in marginal seats like Tamworth and Dubbo plus $133 million for Illawarra hospitals but not a single cent to improve waiting times or facilities at Bowral Hospital.
Ms Goward said mining not health was the main priority of the electorate.
"I think we have delivered a very good coal mining policy and my impression is that was the number one issue of concern here," she said.
"When it comes to Bowral Hospital there is a huge list of hospitals more run down than ours and I have to accept and Bowral has to accept that."
She said the Coalition's promise of more nurses would benefit Highlands residents.
"We are going to offer more nurses. A lot of the problem at that hospital (Bowral) is administration, not the building of the hospital itself," she said.
"It's the administration and the maintenance of the hospital. Those things will be addressed."
Oh dear! The electorate of Goulburn has just two public hospitals - Goulburn Base and Bowral Hospital. Neither of these hospitals, to my knowledge, has had any major capital upgrade that can increase their capacity to deal with their growing populations. Bowral Hospital's lifts have recently been fixed, Medical Records and Emergency Department have been given a tweak and a tuck here and there. But the Children's Ward and the Renal Unit are the product of some very serious fundraising work by the local community members, service clubs and businesses.
There have been no additional beds added to Bowral Hospital for more than a decade or two even though our population is not only growing as quickly as anywhere else, but also the number of seniors is increasing at a greater rate than the metropolitan and regional areas in NSW. The 72, or so, beds in the Bowral Hospital are expected to cater for maternity, medical and surgical, young children, aged care, intensive care, day surgery, and mental health patients.
Regional hospitals like Tamworth and Dubbo are important hubs for the medical and surgical needs of their regions. One would not deny that they may have a need for funding. However, there is some hint of pork-barrelling with those two hospitals when one considers that they are spoken of as being "marginal seats". And the Illawarra is already very resource-rich but clearly, the electorates down there could also fall into the category of being "marginal seats".
Does it follow then, that the Liberal Party, and Ms Skinner and Ms Goward, see the electorate of Goulburn as such a "safe seat" that they can afford to ignore what they have been told and what they have seen. Not all that long ago Pru Goward wheeled in Jillian Skinner to rouse the community about the delay in surgical cases. She also conducted a forum on what people wanted to see improved in the local health services. Were those meetings just for show? Where is the additional funding for the surgical waiting list? Where are the additional services for Bowral Hospital that local people are now expected to travel to the northern LHN hospitals to be able to access essential and life-saving health services?
So, what are we in the Southern Highlands being offered? More nurses and a change in administrative practices. Well Ms Goward what incentive is the Liberal Party going to offer those nurses to come to work at Bowral Hospital. The nurses are there - coming out of the universities every year. But given a choice almost every one of them will prefer to go to one of the metropolitan hospitals to work. Why? Because those hospitals have modern facilities and have a comprehensive range of specialties to offer those new graduates the experience they need to complement their academic training and future career path.
Are all the problems evident in Bowral Hospital attributable to poor management. You bet! But not necessarily with the Bowral Hospital management. As has been described many times in previous posts on this blog - Bowral Hospital was (and still is) the boil on the butt of a very large milk cow. The old SSWAHS Executive had a very hard job to remember it was there unless they sat down, or unless the residents in the local community stirred the pot a lot. Money was reluctantly thrown at Bowral Hospital only when there was a significant amount of pain being felt by the SSWAHS Executive.
The current General Manager and his Deputy have done their utmost to deliver the already limited health services required by the community, health services limited by the instruction, lack of funding, and insistence of the Executive of the old SSWAHS. To give them due credit the Bowral Hospital managers have been the most amicable of messengers asked to do the bidding of SSWAHS executives who, if they planned a visit, appeared to have great difficulty even finding Bowral Hospital. This is clearly a case of, Ms Goward, "Don't shoot the messenger".
Perhaps, our current serving Liberal member needs to become more of an advocate for her electorate prior to this March election. Ms Goward, be proactive and insist that the promises made previously to the Southern Highlands community are fully funded in this term of parliament rather than in the "second term" for which you wish us to vote for you.
