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| Letter to Minister for Health re Northern Beaches Hospital |
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The Hon John Della Bosca MLC 23rd October 2008 Dear Minister, As the Members representing the community of the Northern Beaches, we have met your predecessors (Ministers Meagher, Hatzistergos, Iemma and Refshauge), and discussed the promised Northern Beaches Hospital. Our community and medical practitioners have been assured on numerous occasions that your Government will build a new Northern Beaches Hospital. Specialist medical practitioners are now indicating publicly and privately that they will abandon the dilapidated hospital at Manly and the inadequate hospital at Mona Vale unless there is a clear indication of a time frame for delivery of the new hospital. Previous Health Ministers have presided over much public consultation and medical practitioner consultation predicated on the promise to deliver a new hospital. Recently a respected group of specialists met with the local MPs and confirmed that your Department has indicated that your Government is now unlikely to proceed to deliver the new hospital. Their anger, frustration, confusion and desperation was palpable. They pointed out that young specialists would not stay in the Manly/Mona Vale hospital system if there is no likelihood of delivery of a new hospital within a reasonable time frame. Your Government has in effect abused their trust. Many of them have committed hundreds of hours to Government consultation committees establishing the Clinical Services Plan and the various permutations of the Health Services Plan. There is no more opportunity for political game playing. The time for decision-making is now. A failure to do so will jeopardise the lives of many Northern Beaches residents. We request an urgent meeting with you at which we propose to bring a representative group of senior specialists so that you can be better appraised of the critical healthcare needs of Northern Beaches residents. We ask that you respond urgently to our request for a meeting. Yours faithfully, Brad Hazzard, Member for Wakehurst Rob Stokes, Member for Pittwater Mike Baird, Member for Manly Jonathan O'Dea, Member for Davidson
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