DEBUS CONDEMNS HOSPITAL FEAR CAMPAIGN August 3, 2007

The Federal Labor candidate for Macquarie, Bob Debus, today condemned his opponent for making political mileage out of State Government affairs.

Mr Debus said the Member for Macquarie, Kerry Bartlett, had helped generate fear and uncertainty in the community by saying Springwood Hospital was under threat of closure.

“The NSW Health Department is simply doing its job by ensuring that services are meeting the needs of residents,” said Mr Debus.

“There is a scheduled review going on right now and consultations with the community are an important part. The department’s review involving Dr Patrick Creegan is aimed at ensuring residents have access to safe, high-quality surgical services.

“If hospital services in the Mountains were not being reviewed regularly, residents would be rightly concerned.

“Springwood Hospital is an integral part of hospital care for all of the Mountains, especially in the areas of aged care and rehabilitation services.”

Mr Debus said the Federal Member for Macquarie had over-stepped the mark by interfering in a regular departmental review.

“Mr Bartlett is in election mode,” said Mr Debus. “He is clearly being opportunistic, fanning the flames of concern to bolster his local vote.

“If Mr Bartlett was genuinely concerned about the health of Blue Mountains residents, he would be persuading his good friend Mr Howard to cut public dental waiting lists.

“It was revealed this week that Mountains residents are waiting many months to be assessed and then waiting up to three years for dental treatment.

“This is a genuinely urgent health matter. Mr Bartlett should be acting on behalf of his constituents to cut dental waiting lists but instead he is wasting his time scaremongering.”

Mr Debus called on Mr Bartlett to lobby the Prime Minister to reinstate the Commonwealth Dental Program that was axed in 1996. There are currently 650,000 people on public dental waiting lists around Australia.

“Mr Bartlett should also work to reverse the Commonwealth Government short-changing the public hospital system to the tune of $1.1 billion dollars every year.

“Since 2000, the Commonwealth contribution to public hospitals has declined from 50 per cent of public hospital funding to only 45 per cent – that’s $330 million a year for NSW alone.”

The $330 million annual funding shortfall could provide:

• The total cost of running Springwood Hospital for over 50 years
• 4070 year-8 resident nurses

• 25,860 hip replacements

• 21,610 knee replacements