Media Release
Newman Contradicts Springborg On
Closures
Shadow Health Minister, Jo-Ann Miller,
says the shock closure of Wynnum Hospital and the loss of nursing home beds at
the Moreton Bay Nursing Care Unit demolish excuses used by Health Minister,
Lawrence Springborg, to defend the LNP’s savage cuts to frontline
services.
“Mr Springborg needs to explain how on
earth it could be in the interests of families and their aged relatives to lose
up to 129 beds at the Moreton Bay Nursing Care Unit at Wynnum West and for the
bayside community to lose Wynnum Hospital,” Mrs Miller
said.
“The Premier has today said on radio
his government is abandoning the delivery of aged care services such as nursing
homes.
“Yet Mr Springborg is still pretending
the slashing of nursing home bed numbers is a matter for regional health boards
to consider case by case. The Minister has clearly not been telling the
truth.
“The Premier has today set out a clear
position — his government is determined to abandon all state government aged
care services which is why the Moreton Bay Nursing Care Unit is the latest to be
shut along with the Wynnum Hospital.”
On radio this morning while trying to
blame health boards for service cuts, Mr Newman was asked directly: “So you
are wanting to get out of aged care?”
He answered: “…yes,
exactly.”
Mrs Miller said Mr Springborg needed
to start earning his salary by taking responsibility for the closure of Wynnum
Hospital and the loss of beds at the Moreton Bay Nursing Care
Unit.
“It is Mr Springborg’s LNP government
that declared it would protect and improve frontline
services.
“Yet in just six months the government
has earned a reputation for sacking nurses and other frontline and support
staff, closing hospitals and reducing nursing home bed
numbers.
“Mr Springborg must stop hiding behind
his regional health boards or else he should hand over his job and salary to
someone who is willing to take responsibility.
“If Mr Springborg continues to fail
Queenslanders and take no responsibility for the boards’ decisions, he will
simply prove how useless he is as Minister for Health and how ineffective LNP
MPs are.
“As long as Mr Springborg hides behind
the boards he and his LNP colleagues such as the Member for Lytton, Neil Symes,
in the Wynnum area cannot give any guarantees to local communities about the
future of health facilities.
“The truth is every Queensland Health
facility in the state is now under threat and we are stuck with a Minister who
doesn’t lift a finger,” Mrs Miller said.
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