Call to defend health care

By Anthony Thirlwall

ADELAIDE -- “Yes, we are political and we will continue to be political. We want more people to be political. We want a healthy society”, explained Jill Archer, from Save Community Health, to a public meeting of nearly 200 people on September 8.

The meeting, was organised by the Coalition for Better Health to discuss the implications of state budget cuts to public health of $65 million over the next four years, $35 million of it in this financial year.

Gail Gago, state secretary of the Australian Nurses Federation, told the meeting “these cuts will affect those who can afford it the least”.

Those reliant on community health centres in the western suburbs will suffer most. These centres lost 7-9% funding. Most others, including women's health centres, were cut by at least 5%.

A number of participants expressed a desire to hold some form of public demonstration and stressed the importance of making links with other groups opposed to the direction of the state budget.

Other speakers included Ron Donato from the University of South Australia, Ken Goodall from the Hospitals & Health Service Association and John Emery, president of the AMA.

The meeting adopted resolutions opposing cuts to health services. It also decided to oppose budget cuts and policy direction that encourage the privatisation of public health services.

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