Shane Moran from Tamworth writes about staffing at rural NSW hospitals.
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HAVE no doubt, Tamworth has a great hospital with great staff.
Thanks to Tony Windsor, Peter Draper and Kevin Anderson for fighting for, and delivering, a brand new hospital that the community can be proud of.
We keep hearing a positive “what’s next” from our elected representatives in the NSW Parliament, but, simply put, Tamworth hospital needs more staff to deal with the extra workload.
No doubt change does not happen overnight, and no doubt the Baird/Grant government is a good, pro-active government that has cleaned up 16 years of Labor neglect in rural NSW.
But the minister who has had the health portfolio, Jillian Skinner, needs to understand that after many years of holding this portfolio, that backwardness can no longer be a policy in addressing the needs of staffing in our hospitals.
I would hope that 2019, the year of the next state election, comes a lot faster for the Nationals, because they would also want to outline what they have done for staffing our rural hospitals.
Troy Grant, a good Nationals MP who has performed well so far as leader of the party and deputy premier, now is your time to stare down your cabinet colleagues and get the funding to staff rural hospitals, particularly Tamworth hospital.
I would hate to see the area in which I live be neglected. I don’t think it is too much to ask for a better deal for rural communities.
As for Ms Skinner, well, there are many talented Liberal backbenchers, I feel, who would get the message if they were elevated to cabinet.
Maybe, just maybe, a cabinet reshuffle is in order, if you can’t fund more nurses in rural NSW hospitals.
I am a conservative, but I believe that frontline services and hospitals should not be run like a business.
I would urge the Baird/Grant government to heed that call and give Tamworth hospital the staffing it needs to run efficiently.
No more boards, no more excuses, but more nurses and doctors.
The next state election in 2019 is coming faster than anyone thinks.