McCORMACK RAISES COOTAMUNDRA HOSPITAL CRISIS IN FEDERAL PARLIAMENT

 The Cootamundra hospital crisis has been raised by Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack who told Parliament the community “deserves better”.

 “It’s simply not good enough, and these bureaucrats should pull their bloody heads in and realise that this community needs maternity services,” Mr McCormack said in a hard-hitting speech.

 “They need them now and they need them going into the future.”

 The Cootamundra community was told just last month that maternity services would be taken away under proposed changes under the Murrumbidgee Local Health District’s draft health services plan for the Cootamundra health service.

 The draft plan was on public display until yesterday.

 “The Cootamundra community has been told that pathology, maternity and surgery are not going to happen any longer under these proposed changes, and it’s simply not good enough,” Mr McCormack told Parliament.

 Mr McCormack, speaking in a debate on the reduction in the provision of maternity services in rural Australia, noted that the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council Mayor, Councillor Charlie Sheahan, had said the town’s population is projected to increase by “thousands” with the expansion of the local meatworks.

 “Why should people living in rural and regional areas have fewer and inferior services to Australians living in metropolitan areas? There’s no right or proper answer to that question. They simply should not.

 “I’ve written to the Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health and, whilst I appreciate that this is very much at the foot of the Minns State Government, I felt compelled to raise this issue with Minister (Emma) McBride to impress upon her the importance of, at the very least, maintaining health services in regional and rural areas, because that is her portfolio.

 Let’s face it: these communities are growing. All the LGAs in my area are growing, and yet, if it truly reflects the community’s health needs, why take it away? Why cut it? It makes no sense.”

ENDS         

UPDATE: Public display and feedback for the draft plan has since been extended until 31 July 2024. More details at https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/nsw-health/service-directory/cootamundra-health-service