The Illawarra community has shown it is determined to keep Shellharbour Hospital in public ownership.
A petition signed by more than 12,000 Illawarra residents opposing the privatisation of Shellharbour Hospital prompted vigorous debate in the NSW parliament last month.
Labor MPs said the petition showed the depth of community feeling and demanded the government rule out any privatisation plan.
Even the Liberal Party’s MP for Kiama, Gareth Ward, demanded the government make a quick decision on the issue.
Shellharbour is one of five regional hospitals originally listed for privatisation under a “public–private partnership” (PPP) late last year.
The government has since abandoned PPPs at Wyong, Bowral and Goulburn hospitals but Shellharbour and Maitland hospitals remain up for grabs.
The parliamentary debate on the Shellharbour Hospital petition was watched by hospital staff and community supporters who travelled to Sydney by bus.
They included emergency department nurse Silvana Dimovski, who finished a busy nightshift before boarding the bus after less than two hour’s sleep, the Illawarra Mercury newspaper reported.
“The community is rallying behind us – I hear it at the shops, on the street, and on the wards,’’ she told the paper.
‘’I’m fighting for my patients to have quality care, for the community’s right to have equitable access to their hospital. And I’m fighting for my colleagues and I to have job security, to not lose our current salaries and entitlements.’’
Cracks in the Coalition
Inside parliament, MP Gareth Ward, the government’s Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast, caused a stir when he demanded an answer from Health Minister Brad Hazzard on the hospital’s future.
“Hurry up and get this thing done,” he told the minister.
“Whatever decision you make, I want to see the facts, I want to see the evidence, and I think it’s high time that this debate was brought to a close.
“We all want to know all of the information; it’s time to make a decision. I ask you to do that, Minister.”
On the Labor side, Shellharbour MP Anna Watson said residents had “made their feelings undeniably clear”.
“We have evidence from every corner of the community… we all stand together and collectively reject this government’s privatisation agenda.”
Member for Wollongong Paul Scully said it was “time the government listened” to what the Illawarra had to say and “back-flipped” on their decision.
Keira MP Ryan Park said the region was known for its “fighting spirit” and “over 12,000 people have made it very clear that this is a hospital that should remain in public hands.”
Support for Shellharbour’s nurses and residents has also come from communities that earlier forced the government to back down on hospital privatisation.
In Bowral, local shire councillor Graham McLaughlin said the government had backed down on issues when it faced a major community backlash.
“I’m hoping the people of Shellharbour can get a win like we’ve had up here,” he said.
Wyong MP David Harris said his community’s defeat of hospital privatisation had “resonated right through the whole community and that’s what we have to capture in Maitland, Shellharbour and Port Kembla – not because we’ve had a victory, but because it’s the right thing to do.”