Battle for the Mater heats up
By Alison Dellit
NEWCASTLE — The dispute over the future of the Mater Hospital was given a substantial boost when more than 1500 people attended a public meeting here on February 2 to demand extra state government funding for the hospital.
Organised by Newcastle Trades Hall Council and Hunter People for Social Justice, the meeting was one of the largest gatherings of Hunter residents in many years.
The Mater hospital is owned by the Sisters of Mercy Singleton, but is given $50 million of public money to provide public services. It provides public teaching facilities and is the only hospital in the region with a specialist cancer unit.
Over the last few years, demands on the hospital have outstripped the funding available, leading to bed closures and unfilled staff positions. The management of Hunter Health and the Mater board claim that the only solution is to seek a private funding "partner".
At the public meeting, staff and patients argued against privatisation and for immediate extra funds from the NSW government. Doctors and nurses told horror stories of overcrowding, including of emergency patients removed from beds and placed in chairs, cancer patients being forced to wait for six weeks for preliminary assessments and fatally ill patients sharing curtained-off cubicles with other patients.
Trades Hall secretary Peter Barrack condemned any proposal that would introduce a "private, profits-first ethos" into the hospital and a resolution was passed calling on the state government to immediately provide enough funding to reopen closed wards, refund the alcohol detoxification unit and fill all vacant staff positions. These demands will be taken to a mass rally on February 16, at noon in Civic Park.
In a show of solidarity, the meeting gave all of the money donated there to the sacked National Textiles picketers' fund (see article on page 7).
The enormous size of the public meeting sent Hunter Health and the local media scurrying. The Newcastle Herald handed over two pages of the January 4 edition to Hunter Health to "explain" the private partner proposal.
Two days after the public meeting Mater Hospital announced major cuts to skin cancer treatment, including an 80% cut to follow-up screening of melanoma patients.