Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The first patient was admitted to Echuca Hospital, on the banks of the mighty Murray River, in 1882. In 1890 a new south wing was built. In 1907 an operating theatre, nurses home and doctors accommodation were constructed. You are probably expecting me to continue with this happy history right up to modern times, telling the Australian people through this parliament how the population of the city of Echuca and its twin town across the river, Moama, now have a modern, up-to-date hospital serving the 19,000 locals and hundreds of thousands of tourists who come every year to this destination to water ski, to relax, to fish and very often to get married on the historic wharf.

In fact, thousands of local people will rally this Thursday to protest that there has been no new bed built in the hospital since 1962—that is right, not one new bed over almost the last 50 years. The population has grown enormously over the last 20 years, as you can imagine, and it is expected to grow by 18 per cent over the next 25 years on the Victorian side and by 40 per cent across the river in Moama.

The Victorian Department of Human Services recently reported that the region served by Echuca Hospital, now called Echuca Regional Health, compared to the rest of the state has a higher rate of cancer for both men and women, a higher rate of cardiovascular disease for males and a higher rate of diabetes for males. We need good health services.

Do not get me wrong—the staff and administrators, the volunteers and the support services do a magnificent job but they struggle to attract and retain specialists and professionals when they must work in virtually Third World accommodation and conditions. The hospital needs a total rebuild. It is literally falling apart. It is like a rabbit warren, with old louvre windows, bathrooms shared by accident and emergency patients, and women in the process of giving birth. Women tell horror stories about trying, between their contractions, to help elderly people on walking frames squeeze past them in noisy corridors.

Conditions are so bad that in winter patients have to bring their own heaters from home to stay warm in their beds in the wards. The old-style buildings may look picturesque, but try offering modern medical services out of l9th and mid-20th century structures, patched together and presenting unacceptable standards. The Echuca-Moama community is sick and tired of being overlooked and forgotten especially when they see other regional hospitals in places like Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong get new funding to build adequate facilities—and, yes, they are all marginal seats—while the desperate plight of this hospital continues to be steadfastly ignored. The 565 staff deserve better. They cannot be expected to continue to work in such conditions.

The master plan for the new hospital is well advanced, with some government support, but a plan is not worth the paper it is printed on if it does not trigger a building event. On 9 September, Minister Nicola Roxon said on ABC GM radio that funding would go to those hospitals that showed public support for improvement of their facilities. While this revealed a strange way to set priorities, the Echuca-Moama community wants to inform the Minister for Health and Ageing that in 2007, during the worst drought on record, they raised $50,000 to link the emergency department to GV Health Pathology. In 2007 they raised over $24,000 in a single bike ride, the Murray to Moyne, to fit out a multipurpose health promotion van for the region. The Moama Bowling Club has raised $30,000 for a colonoscope. Echuca Regional Health has converted a close by aged care facility to student accommodation for tertiary health students studying with Melbourne University. They have $2.7 million of the $5 million this project needs.

This regional twin town and city of Echuca-Moama is doing everything it can to try to make do. But the fact is it is now a state of emergency for this vital health infrastructure. The state and federal governments cannot continue to overlook them. So at 10.00 am on 21 October Echuca will stop to rally for a new hospital . If I was not in parliament, of course I would be there, with my neighbour the member for Farrer beside me representing Moama.

Minister Roxon has been invited to Echuca to inspect this hospital, she has been invited to the rally and she has been invited to accept a deputation on this matter—something she is not keen to do. We are saying please, Minister Roxon and the Gillard government, think carefully about this regional hospital’s needs. You say you care, but enough is enough. This is a state of emergency.