Maryborough Hospital - 2006

LETTER TO EDITOR - 5 January 2006

Dear Editor

Quite clearly nothing has changed. Our Premier and his colleagues have gone on holidays, but their appointees continue the sabotage of our health services undeterred by public opinion.

Prior to the 2004 State Election, Premier Beattie and his then Health Minister Wendy Edmonds wrote to electors in Maryborough and told the boldest of lies. His government would stand by its commitment to the people of Maryborough that "the ICU would remain open, that 24-hour emergency service and operating theatres would remain available at the hospital, that maternity and obstetrics service would remain, and that Maryborough Hospital would have its own manager".

He went on to say these commitments were "not negotiable". Meanwhile Messrs Keating, Leck, Alsopp and others fed the public lies and callous disregard until they were finally challenged by Commissioner Tony Morris and then Justice Geoff Davies and forced to step aside.

After months of inaction, a new manager has been appointed to the Fraser Coast Health Service and her first announcement was that she may "be forced to suspend services" even further. Clearly Beattie and his ministers think Maryborough people are both deaf and blind.

What is left to close down? Why has a major regional facility been stripped of its usefulness and its staff forced to leave town to find work?

Why are Queensland Health bureaucrats still finding excuses to rob regional communities of functioning hospital services? And why has Beattie dried up funding for Maryborough Hospital in particular?