The Cootamundra Hospital crisis has been raised by Federal Nationals Member for Riverina Michael McCormack, who told Parliament the community “deserves better.”
“It’s simply not good enough, and these bureaucrats should pull their bloody heads in and realise that this community needs maternity services,” Mr McCormack said in a hard-hitting speech.
“They need them now and they need them going into the future.”
The Cootamundra community was told just last month that maternity services would be taken away under proposed changes under the Murrumbidgee Local Health District’s draft health services plan for the Cootamundra health service.
The draft plan was on public display until Monday this week.
“The Cootamundra community has been told that pathology, maternity and surgery are not going to happen any longer under these proposed changes, and it’s simply not good enough,” Mr McCormack told Parliament.
Mr McCormack, speaking in a debate on the reduction in the provision of maternity services in rural Australia, noted that the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council Mayor, Councillor Charlie Sheahan, had said the town’s population is projected to increase by “thousands” with the expansion of the local meatworks.
“Why should people living in rural and regional areas have fewer and inferior services to Australians living in metropolitan areas? There’s no right or proper answer to that question. They simply should not.
“I’ve written to the Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health and, whilst I appreciate that this is very much at the foot of the Minns State Government, I felt compelled to raise this issue with Minister McBride to impress upon her the importance of, at the very least, maintaining health services in regional and rural areas, because that is her portfolio.
Let’s face it: these communities are growing. All the LGAs in my area are growing, and yet, if it truly reflects the community’s health needs, why take it away? Why cut it? It makes no sense.”
“The MLHD has shown no real interest in community input”
Earlier this month the NSW Parliament voted in support of a motion calling on the release of all documents relating to the Murrumbidgee Local Health District’s (MLHD) draft Health Service Plan for the hospital.
Nationals Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke said she was compelled to act, following a serious lack of community consultation on the plan.
“Since the draft Health Service Plan for the Cootamundra Hospital was released, two things have become clear: firstly, that certain health services are at risk, and secondly, that the community has not been properly consulted on this draft plan,” Ms Cooke said.
“What is not so clear however, is exactly how the MLHD arrived at this point, and this motion to produce documents is a first step towards restoring trust and transparency in the process, which has so far fallen well short of community standards,” she said.
Ms Cooke said that despite claims to the contrary, the MLHD has shown no real interest in community input, and no genuine concern for what’s in the best interests of the town and its surrounding areas.
“I’m sorry to say, but the MLHD’s so called community consultation has been tokenistic at best. This was never more evident than during last week’s information evening which could only be described as a “schemozzle”,” Ms Cooke said.
“Unlike the MLHD I have had many, many conversations with the community, speaking in-depth to a wide range of stakeholders from doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, pathologists, dentists, new mothers, and older residents.
“What they’re telling me is that there has been a genuine lack of engagement with the community, who are now concerned about what the future holds for various services including maternity, pathology, and surgical services in the town.”
