Minister for Health Jillian Skinner was very impressed by Adam Marshall’s suitcase when the Member for Northern Tablelands carried it into her office for their 11.30am meeting yesterday.
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Mr Marshall said she was even more impressed when more than 4500 letters of support for the redevelopment of Inverell District Hospital were lifted out of it and landed on her desk.
“She was absolutely blown away by the huge volume of letters, and couldn’t believe that in such a short space of time we’d been able to gather that amount of signatures,” Mr Marshall said.
“She actually remarked that she doesn’t get volumes of paper like that about any particular topic, even the big metropolitan hospitals, let alone an issue in a regional town in NSW.
“All of the stats and the scoping work that’s been done by Hunter New England Health was on the table as well, and I spent a long time with the Minister. She gave me a very good hearing. I walked away from the meeting felling optimistic.”
Mr Marshall said, realistically, he had not expected Ms Skinner to deliver a decision during the meeting.
“I wasn’t going into the meeting expecting that at all. I would have been very surprised if that was the case,” he said.
“But the impact of those letters was as great as I though it would be and it really did set the tone for the rest of the meeting.”
Ms Skinner provided no commitment about the funding or her future decision about the matter.
“Adam Marshall is a strong advocate for both Inverell and Armidale hospitals and he continues to champion the need for major redevelopments of these facilities,” Ms Skinner observed.
“Announcements related to health capital works projects will be made in due course.”