This week’s question focused on health and the need for more services in regional areas throughout the Murray electorate. 

Question: Recent protests have shone a light on inadequate services and facilities in hospitals across the Murray electorate - particularly in regards to orthopedics, oncology, baby services and mental health (social workers). 

What do you pledge to do to address the gaps in health services across the Murray electorate? 

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate Helen Dalton:

Our community has put up with over 30 years of neglect to our hospitals and health services.

It’s not good enough that while the state economy is swimming in profits off the back of the sale of critical public assets our community has had to plead, fight and beg for funding for our hospitals. 

This funding and support should have been provided for in the first place.

I will stand with the community, not against them, on critical hospital infrastructure and health services.

The inadequacy and silence of our Health Minister Brad Hazzard on this issue is putting patients’ lives at risk. 

The “L” in Murrumbidgee Local Health District stands for “Local”, but clearly local knowledge and experience is not being recognised or valued. 

The tyranny of distance and sparse population numbers are not good reasons to reduce or downgrade essential services to regional areas.

My party will also hold the balance of power no matter whether Labor or the Coalition are in Government. 

That means we can deliver the health services Murray needs in the longer term, not just for four years.

Together with the community I will fight for bottom up financing and minimum staffing requirements for hospitals and all health services across the region.

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OUR community deserves real action, not more talk, on health services.

Just because we live in regional NSW doesn’t mean we should be forced to travel hundreds of kilometres for services, available in the city.

The NSW government has committed to the initial upgrade of Griffith Base Hospital, with $35 million in this year’s budget for Stage One.

This includes upgrades for the ambulatory care clinic, renal dialysis, oncology, the Intensive Care Unit, Improving access and onsite parking and refurbishing surgical inpatient accommodation. It also funds preparation the site for future stages and the clinical services plan.

Work begin on site by the end of the year.

The clinical services plan, with proper consultation, will set out the kind of hospital we need for the future of our region – for many years to come.

Its vial we have a seat at the table when those decisions are being made – and that means a voice inside the government.

I will fight to make sure we get the new Griffith Base Hospital right and that our community gets the facility we need.  

Griffith deserves to see the second and third stages of the hospital paid for in the 2018/19 budget – that is, before the middle of next year.

That’s what I’ll be agitating for if you give me the chance.

I don’t care which doors I have to knock down to do it, I want it funded by next year.

We need more than just a new hospital though, which will be some years off, we need fast access to vital services including our oncology and orthopaedics units to ensure our loved ones are treated with care close to their support networks, family and friends.

We also need the best quality maternity wards for our mothers and access to mental health facilities for the vulnerable in our communities.

On this front, I can bring the action we need.

All you will hear from Labor and the Shooters is talk. They want an inquiry into health services in the Murrumbidgee. I want to build a hospital.

The real solution to improve Murrumbidgee Local Health District is to fix the representation on the board – to include more voices from the West to ensure the day-to-day management is done right. You don’t need an inquiry to tell you that, and that’s exactly what I’ll be pushing for.

The $35 million redevelopment of the Griffith Base Hospital is only the start. It’s a tangible example of The Nationals delivering for our region and the first step to a new hospital – done once, done right.

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As a long-time Leeton radiographer and husband to a nurse, I see first-hand the importance of affordable and timely healthcare.

Sadly, the Nationals only have two approaches: cuts and privatisation.

In our region, we have seen the Nationals try to slash maternity services, cut pathology services; privatise sterilisation services and fail to fill dozens of vacancies across the region. This is the Americanisation of the Australian health system.

The Nationals have simply stopped listening to patients and medical staff.

Basic health should be determined by your Medicare card, not your credit card.

Australians deserve a health system where patients come before profits.

Unfortunately, there has been a deterioration of the health and hospital system over the last six years under the Nationals.

If elected I will push for a properly constructed inquiry into the Murrumbidgee Local Health District. It is what the community is calling for; the health service needs and our embattled, exhausted and damaged staff deserve

Most importantly, I will listen to the doctors, nurses, health and hospital workers as well as patients to deliver what the community needs – not a bureaucrat in Wagga Wagga, North Sydney or Canberra.

I am 100 per cent committed to ensuring that the entire Murray electorate gets its fair share of health resources.

I will also fight for the long overdue upgrades to the Griffith Hospital and ensure it is properly staffed so that we do not have un-staffed wards and lengthy waits. 

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THE Greens NSW Health Policy provides for universal access to public hospitals that is needs-based rather than dependent upon health insurance status, providing access to staff for all residents, who have a comprehensive skill mix, including health care professionals such as doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and health promotion officers, who are provided with appropriate facilities and equipment.

Communities remote from hospital should be provided with similarly staffed and equipped Primary Health Care centres, as opposed to GP super clinics, that will ensure access to all regardless of their location.

These provisions will ensure access to all for services such as oncology and orthopaedics.

With regards to baby services the Greens policy is to provide for an increase in midwife-based birthing services and woman-centred services and improving continuity of care in all public hospitals. We call for a birth centre in each area where these services are not offered in mainstream health services, and for the expansion of maternal and child health and early childhood services.

Public post-natal services should be increased, in particular, services for women experiencing post-natal mental health issues.

The Greens also call for significantly increasing funding for public mental-health services at public hospital inpatient services, community-based outpatient and outreach services, and for case managers, especially for patients with acute and pervasive mental health conditions. We call for improved hospital and community-based mental health services and continuity of care.