MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall has told his parliamentary colleagues that the region is experiencing a “health revolution”, with the Armidale and Inverell communities seeing $92 million in completed and planned hospital upgrades over the next 12 months, with more to come.
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The local MP delivered a Private Member’s Statement on the floor of State Parliament last week, celebrating the hugely successful $60 million redevelopment of Armidale Hospital, imminent construction of a new Inverell Hospital and declaring Moree as the next hospital on his list.
In the speech, Mr Marshall said that regional people have high expectations for their health services, with high quality facilities essential for attracting and keeping residents.
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“There is one thing that country people do not and will not ever accept and that is health services that are subpar or not to the same standards that are expected, demanded and delivered in the cities,” Mr Marshall told Parliament.
“They will not lie down and let services be stripped from their communities because they live on the other side of the sandstone curtain. A knee is still a knee, whether it supports its owner in Bondi or in Bingara.”
Mr Marshall said the hugely successful $60 million redevelopment of Armidale Hospital “was not the end” of improvements in the Northern Tablelands – with a complete overhaul of Inverell Hospital to break ground in the coming months.
“The Inverell hospital has been at the forefront of the minds of Inverell residents since the 1970s, when protests first began about the condition of the facility and the standards of care,” Mr Marshall said.
“The tireless advocacy by local clinicians, Inverell Shire Council, the Inverell Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Operation: Operating Room, and passionate locals such as Bob Bensley has finally sealed the deal.”
Mr Marshall pledged to continue his advocacy, fighting for an additional $30 million in funding from the NSW Government in the upcoming 2018/19 budget.
“I have called on the Government to fast‑track stage two of this project and commit another $30 million to future-proof the hospital by installing a computerised tomography (CT) scanning facility and extra operating theatres,” Mr Marshall said.
“Stage two will also involve moving all the community allied health facilities into the existing hospital building, which will be gutted and refurbished.”
“This will ensure that the Inverell community can sustain the health needs of a growing population.”
Mr Marshall finished his statement with a nod to Moree’s Hospital, which following a $2 million upgrade and expansion of renal facilities, is next on his list for a major upgrade.
“If Inverell can have those facilities, I think Moree can too,” Mr Marshall said.
