Cobar Hospital will not close
Wednesday March 10, 2010
Cobar’s Mayor Lilliane Brady said she has been given assurances by Minister for Health Carmel Tebbutt’s office that Cobar’s Hospital will not close down.
“The Minister’s office has assured me that Cobar Hospital will never close down,” Cr Brady told The Cobar Weekly on Friday.
Cr Brady had cause to phone the NSW Government Minister for Health’s office following a story in Friday’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper that listed Cobar Hospital as one of 117 health services across the state that was at risk of closing under the Federal Government’s proposed health reforms.
“This is the most ridiculous thing that Rudd has ever done,” Cr Brady said of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposed pay-for-service health system.
“If he thinks for one minute that the people of Cobar will stand for him taking away our hospital, he can forget about it,” she said on Friday afternoon.
“With three new mines expected to open in the area in the next few years, they should be looking at upgrading our hospital, not taking it away.”
Mr Rudd has fought back at the media reports regarding hospital closures saying it is part of a ‘fear campaign’ by various state governments.
“There is absolutely nothing in any one of the reforms that we have put forward in this plan that would cause any hospital in the country to close,” Mr Rudd told the Channel 7 Sunrise television program on Friday.
The health reforms proposal is to be put to COAG (Council of Australian Governments) next month.
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