Bellingen Chamber of Commerce

BELLINGEN SHIRE COUNCIL   MEDIA RELEASE

Bellingen Shire Council’s February Council Meeting has been put back a day to enable a Council deputation to meet NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Carmel Tebbutt to convey concerns about service reductions at the Bellinger River District Hospital at Bellingen. Mayor – Cr Mark Troy, Deputy Mayor – Cr Kerry Child and General Manager Mike Colreavy will be meeting the Minister in Sydney on 24 February along with local Member of Parliament, Andrew Stoner. The Council has agreed to include Bellingen Hospital Action Group representative, Jaki Lockyer, in the delegation.

“We have concerns about the direction the hospital is heading and we asked Andrew Stoner to seek this meeting last December,” said Cr Troy. “Promises made to the community many months ago to reinstate the maternity services have not been kept, and it is now at a standstill. We also hold grave fears that there is an underlying agenda to cut other services including possibly discontinuing the 24 hour accident and emergency service and reducing the availability of acute beds. We will be telling the Minister that these service reductions are completely unacceptable to the Bellingen community. We want obstetric and maternity services re-instated and assurances that other services will be maintained.”

Members of the delegation also understand that some hospital functions could be better utilised, such as the operating theatre. “There is spare capacity with the operating theatre,” said Cr Troy.

Cr Troy also said that the Hospital needs more funding to maintain and replace infrastructure. “It is our understanding that the North Coast area receives substantially less than its equitable share under the funding formula that determines how much should be allocated to the Region,” said Cr Troy. “Consequently the infrastructure is being run down because the Area Health Service can’t afford to maintain it properly. This is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.”

The February Council meeting will instead be held on Thursday 25 February.

Authorised by Mike Colreavy – General Manager File No.:

Date: 8/2/2010

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Mark Troy 6655 7315

ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE GENERAL MANAGER, PO BOX 117, BELLINGEN NSW 2454, TELEPHONE (02) 66557300, FAX (02) 66552310