Community
14 August, 2024
Hands Off Our Hospitals rally postponed
A PLANNED ‘Save Our Hospitals’ rally scheduled for Friday has been postponed.
The postponement comes amidst concerns at the lack of detail provided by the government about last week’s announce health service changes.
Federal MP for Wannon Dan Tehan and State MP for South West Coast Roma Britnell both said lack of detail shared by the government to date suggests to many that this announcement is nothing more than hospital mergers in disguise.
Mr Tehan said he had further concerns the additional $1.5 billion announced for health system would be used to establish the new Melbourne-based bureaucracy Hospitals Victoria.
“How long will it take the Allan Labor Government to deliver this funding, and will we see any of that money locally to support our hardworking healthcare workers?” he questioned.
“We need answers from the Allan Labor Government so we need to stand up together to ensure that our community’s needs are being heard and addressed.”
Ms Britnell said her concern was Labor may only have just shelved plans for now because of political pressure.
“If our regional healthcare providers are to be overseen by a “regional service network” that controls what services are to be provided, staff numbers, budgets and resources to be allocated, then is this not in fact a merger?” she said.
“Let’s not forget that this is a government that told CEOs and board members that they would lose their jobs if they spoke out.
“People in the community have invested in placards around the region which I hope they will leave them in place to remind the government that we won’t accept merges by stealth.”