Vote ýes’ to keep Pambula Hospital
At the Council elections on September 8 , all Bega Valley Shire voters will be asked whether they support the retention of Pambula District Hospital after the new south east regional hospital at Bega is operational, estimated in about four years from now. Everyone is asked to vote YES to ensure decent health care and hospital services for the Bega Valley Shire. Most of the up to $200million for the new hospital is coming from Canberra and our Federal Member for Eden-Monaro, Dr Mike Kelly, has repeated publicly that funding of the new hospital is NOT dependent on closing down Pambula Hospital.
The population in the southern half of the Bega Valley Shire is growing strongly. Commonsense dictates that closing down a functioning health facility, Pambula Hospital, would be quite wrong and against the interests of every individual and family in the Bega Valley Shire. This is because the new ‘regional’ hospital at Bega is designed to service the “region” all the way north to Moruya and up the mountains into Cooma-Monaro – not just our Bega Valley Shire.
Therefore, the new regional hospital, whenever it happens, would not be able to adequately serve all the health needs of our shire, if Pambula Hospital was closed down. Instead, Pambula Hospital will have a vital role to play in co-operation with the new regional hospital to ensure equitable and safe health services everywhere in our Shire. Closing down Pambula Hospital would place unbearable pressure on the facilities and staff of the new hospital which will have to serve the whole region, not just Bega Valley.
The NSW Minister for Health, Ms Jillian Skinner, and the Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, have now joined Mike Kelly in bipartisan commitment to retaining Pambula Hospital. Our outgoing council also considered this issue important enough to vote strongly in support of holding this special Pambula Hospital vote on September 8.
We must all now show our support for our elected representatives as they battle the entrenched bureaucracy of NSW Health which is only concerned with saving dollars, not your health. These bureaucrats cost us 40cents in every health dollar in NSW, resulting in worse health outcomes for patients in country NSW and less money for frontline staff, doctors and nurses. They have been trying to close down Pambula Hospital since 2007, and they still are.
Recently, nurses at both Bega and Pambula hospitals successfully protested to
postpone further staff cuts at Bega which would compromise patient safety. We must support our nurses and doctors. These cutbacks were proposed by the same bureaucrats in Queanbeyan who will design and run the new regional hospital. They need to hear that we, the patients, won’t have our health services compromised further.
The best way to show your support is to ask your preferred Council candidate where they stand on Pambula Hospital. And then vote ‘YES’ on September 8.
Jon Gaul
Member of Save Our Hospital Inc
Tura Beach
Timber funds local roads
I note with interest that there was a complaint at the last Eden Chamber of Commerce meeting about the poor state of Greencape Road, and the negative effect this is having on tourism.
And yet the zealots that would see our sustainably managed working forests shut down tell us that Eden’s future lies with “eco-tourism”.
Harvesting our forests guarantees a network of well-maintained roads that provide access for a lot more than just log haulage and fire fighting.
Just as everyone that uses paper is indirectly an advocate of the timber industry, so are the road users that avail themselves of the Forests NSW road network.
Peter Mitchell
South East Fibre Exports
How about we clean up our act?
With council elections around the corner, I wonder which of the respective candidates are going to arrange something innovative and positive for the ratepayers of the shire?
As a suggestion, I note the Eurobodalla Shire has an annual or bi-annual rubbish pick up from resident’s nature strips.
Now to suggest that Bega Valley Shire implement the same may be met with the argument that the shire is too big and it would cost too much and it isn't in the waste contractors contracts.
No problem there.
How about then, opening up all the council tips (or waste disposal facilities) for free, on one, or better still, two weekends a year, from 6.00am to 6.00pm, Saturday and Sunday (domestic type rubbish only)?
May I suggest this coincide with Clean up Australia Day and again in September each year? The Bega Valley Shire Spring Clean-up weekend maybe?
Give it a go - a trial at least, next Clean up Australia Day?
Unlawful dumping of waste in National Parks and State Forests may be reduced, council would be doing something innovative and positive for the ratepayers.
Surely we don't have to raise a petition on this one, what are the respective councillors stance on this proposal?
Pat Neville
Eden