Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Camden Hospital used to be a place of new life, with a fully operational maternity ward and an emergency ambulance drop-off. But, sadly, due to the New South Wales Labor government’s cutbacks in health and the underinvestment in the Camden Hospital, the area hospital is degenerating into a subacute-care medical centre. No longer is there a fully operational emergency ward and there are no facilities for birthing and no maternity ward.

I was part of a very large crowd—over 300 people—who walked through the streets of Camden protesting to our local state members about the importance of Camden Hospital and protesting that facilities have actually gone backwards over the last 10 years. There was a time, 10 years ago, when Camden Hospital had a birthing clinic, a fully operational emergency ward and was in a growth phase. But, of course, since the New South Wales government came to power and started their cutbacks, those services have decreased greatly.

While the population grows, the services are cut back. In 1998, Camden LGA had a population of 40,180. It now has a population of 52,166 residents, and yet services have declined greatly. I was disappointed that the federal Minister for Health and Ageing was unwilling to take up my open invitation to inspect Camden Hospital even though she was in the region just last week with the cabinet, meeting in the Campbelltown area, and I would encourage her to come along and see the facilities—or lack of facilities—out there in the Camden area.

I know that the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, has mentioned that the buck is going to stop with him, that he is going to make a difference to the health system throughout the whole of Australia, and that no longer will other people be blamed—that he is prepared to accept all concerns and all blame in relation to health and education and so many other things in this country. All I want to say on that is that this is an opportunity for him to not just speak about doing that but to actually do something about it and to work with the New South Wales government to provide them with funding to be able to keep Camden Hospital as a fully functional hospital instead of the skeleton of a premises that it is at this time. I think it is appalling that, while Camden is going to grow to the size of Canberra, with an extra 100,000 homes being developed in that area as we speak, our facilities are going backwards. The people of the Camden district—and, indeed, the Southern Highlands and the whole of south-western Sydney—deserve much better, and I am calling on the federal government to support the New South Wales government in this matter.