In one final push to save the new Maitland Hospital from privatisation, Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison is rallying together with her community at the weekend.
She's encouraging everyone to turn up at 12:30pm in Maitland Park on Sunday, demanding the Government walk away from a public-private provider (PPP) model once and for all. She recently presented a petition to Parliament with more than 20, 000 signatures asking for just this.
Jenny Aitchison says the community's efforts to turn things around have been successful in the past and there's no reason they won't be able to convince the Health Minister to keep their hospital public.
"We've won on the increased funding, we've won on the escalated time frame for delivery, we've won in getting corporate for-profit PPP partnership. We just need the community to really come together for one big final push to reject the not-for-profit public-private partnership.
"We want a fully public hospital."
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| Community Protests over Maitland Hospital. Image: Maitland Mercury |
"Unfortunately, we've got Labor undermining the prospects for a new hospital and any new hospital that we get underway could have the rug pulled out from underneath it. This is bad, bad news for the people of the Lower Hunter and I am calling on the Member for Maitland to get behind our $450 million commitment."
He says despite concerns about the availability of medical services under a not-for-profit provider, this model won't change a thing.
"The signage is up there on the new hospital site that guarantees full public access just as people are used to today so there's [sic] no changes to the levels of service and their accessibility. All the normal things that they would expect from a public hospital will be there. It will just be built and operated by a not-for-profit provider."
But according to Jenny Aitchison, this is not only inaccurate it's simply incorrect. She claims there will be a difference in services under a public-private model and public patients will be the first to suffer if the hospital is at capacity.
"Public patients will be the first to be moved when there are vacancies available. Now, do we want people being moved in hospital because of their treatment needs or because of their capacity to pay?" she said.
"We've already got a private hospital in Maitland. We do not need another private hospital."
