A NSW Health proposal for a new hospital in the Blue Mountains has generated concerns that the plan may involve privatisation, eroding the local availability of public healthcare.
As reported by the Gazette, the construction of a large new hospital in the Blue Mountains is now “the number one priority” in the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District Asset Strategic Plan.
At least two locations are being considered, including the current Blue Mountains Hospital site in Katoomba and the old Lawson Golf Course.
Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle said that while the Mountains needed a large, full-service hospital, the state government had not yet budgeted for it, and expressed suspicions that a new hospital may involve privatisation.
“The Blue Mountains community needs a well-resourced, comprehensive local hospital that can provide quality care for the 80,000 people who live between Lithgow and Penrith,” Ms Doyle told the Gazette.
“Under the current government, staff at our hospital suffer under successive budget cuts and a hyper-pressurised work environment while patients in need of timely and emergency care get bounced around from Katoomba to Penrith,” she said.
“While I support the expansion of public health and hospital services in the Mountains, I am very wary of any proposal put forward by the NSW Liberals because of their obsession with privatisation.”
In Sydney, the rights to build the new Northern Beaches Hospital were controversially awarded by the state government to private healthcare behemoth Healthscope.
The public-private partnership hospital, due to open in October, coincides with the closure of Manly Hospital and the repurposing of Mona Vale Hospital to a rehabilitation and palliative care centre.
Ms Doyle said it would be a very poor outcome if “our public hospital in Katoomba were to be closed down in favour of a new public-private-partnership hospital.”
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was not available to comment on Ms Doyle’s concerns when contacted by the Gazette.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said Mr Hazzard was attending a community cabinet in Queanbeyan and referred the Gazette to Katoomba-based Liberal MLC Shayne Mallard.
Mr Mallard said it was too early to comment on specifics of the new hospital plan.
“Trish Doyle has jumped the gun,” said Mr Mallard. “At this very early stage, plans for a new hospital are being worked on by health bureaucrats, not politicians. It’s still in the category of blue sky thinking and has yet to be adopted as government policy, so there aren’t any details to comment on.”
Mr Mallard claimed it was only because of the state government’s economic management that a new Blue Mountains Hospital could be considered.
“Since 2011, the NSW Government has committed more than $1 billion to Nepean Hospital. In addition, we’ve employed 800 additional full-time staff – including 119 more doctors and nearly 300 more nurses at Nepean Hospital.
“It was only due to solid economic management by the NSW Liberals and Nationals that Nepean Hospital has been properly funded,” he said.
“That is why the focus can now shift to the future of Blue Mountains Hospital.”
