Lib/Nats Demand Rees Includes Port Macquarie Base Hospital Upgrade in Federal Rescue Package

04 February 2009

The State Labor Government needs to ensure that the long overdue Port Macquarie Base Hospital ‘fourth pod’ upgrade that has been long ignored by the Rees Labor Government is considered in Kevin Rudd’s $42 Billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan.

Duty Member for Port Macquarie Melinda Pavey said today that the State Labor Government has lagged on the construction of the ‘fourth pod’, and that the Premier Nathan Rees must not fail the to include this project in the Nation Building fund.

The ABC today said that “Mr Rees says he has already given an undertaking to spend $56 billion dollars on infrastructure over the next four years, and record amounts on health and education” .
“If the Port Macquarie Base Hospital is not included in this raft of infrastructure expenditure, then I don’t know what nation building is,” Mrs Pavey said.
“The Base Hospital has been severely underfunded for too long and the Mid-North Coast region is projected to grow 30% from the 2006 level which means that this project fits the criteria for this so-called ‘long term nation building investment fund’.

“The State Labor Government has perpetually failed to deliver on this project and it is no secret anymore that it simply can’t.

“The fact that the most recent figures show that the Port Macquarie Base Hospital has been forced to cancel up to 30 per cent of planned surgery due to bed shortages, proves just how urgent this project really is.

“Nathan Rees’ continually fails to realise that savings lives and investing in health infrastructure should be a number one priority for NSW.

“Mr Rees can no longer continue to sit on his hands and use the economic crisis as an excuse – he must act now and ensure the Port Macquarie Hospital upgrade is delivered under Rudd’s new package,” Mrs Pavey said.