Port Macquarie hospital protest

April 20, 1994
Issue 

Story and photo
by Therese Mackay

PORT MACQUARIE — NSW health minister Ron Phillips snuck into town on April 8 desperately trying to avoid 60 protesting locals angered by the long waiting lists at the public hospital and plans to privatise the fund-starved facility early next year.

Phillips and his minders stooped to employing a decoy vehicle to draw the protesters, many elderly, away; the ploy failed because Phillips had tried it before.

Real people are waiting days, weeks, months and even years for surgery. In an area with a population of 50,000, the waiting list for a hospital bed has rocketed to 1200.

Many residents believe that the Health Department is manipulating the list in order to make privatisation more attractive. It is thought that the department will release generous funding to the hospital when the private monopoly is in place — on the basis that is run down!

The state government's Port Macquarie Hospital privatisation contracts are the subject of court action under the Freedom of Information Act, beginning April 18. This test case, if successful, will hold up to public scrutiny whether the government is acting in the interests of the community or the private consortium of Mayne Nickless and the Natwest and Hambros banks.

The Fahey government clings leech-like to the 18 contracts, protesting that "controls" are in place; but the small portion of one contract viewed by the Hospital Action Group appears to belie this claim. The veil of secrecy around the hospital privatisation was accompanied late last year by direct intimidation by a senior Health Department official in an effort to force concerned citizens to drop their FoI action.

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