Nationals Candidate for Hunter Michael Johnsen and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Regional Health Services Andrew Laming met with Singleton Hospital representatives and community health stakeholders to identify health shortfalls and opportunities for improvement.

At the top of the visitor’s agenda was the need to remove the bureaucracy surrounding health, cut costs worn by the hospital due to the carbon tax and allow local health providers to make more decisions on how to improve the health of Singleton people. 

A key concern of the political representatives was  Singleton Hospital’s power bill.  The hospital pays more than  $86,000 a year to the carbon tax for the power that is uses in the hospital.

Mr Johnsen questioned how the Labour government could justify taking $86,000 each year from Singleton Hospital for the use of power and asked what should the hospital and community go without because of that cost?

The three major changes the Liberal party would like to see are hospitals and essential services being as efficient as possible without the financial burden of a carbon tax, the removal of unnecessary bureaucracy and to allow local health providers and stakeholders make the decisions in Singleton, as well as allowing the hospitals and community health to use their budget to tailor health services to the local people’s needs.  

Mr Johnsen said he felt it was important to understand the barriers challenging health care in Singleton. 

He said according to a report for Regional Development Australia, the industry of health and aged care is going to be a major growing economic indicator for the Hunter, which means appropriate health care systems need to be in place. 

“We need to try to reduce the barriers and increase the front line services, because they are not only frustrating for the patient, but they are equally frustrating for the staff who are prevented from delivering the health care.”

Mr Laming said the Hunter area had some of the highest needs in the country for out of hospital health care and he believed improvements in that system would result in less patients being admitted to hospital in the first place.

A former doctor in the public health system, Mr Laming said he was concerned about the obstacles that are currently challenging this preventative and proactive approach. 

He said the estimated cost of $50,000 per year to maintain a patient’s health in hospital is money that could be used to help other people in need.

Fitzgibbon says comments are reckless

IN response to Nationals Candidate for Hunter Michael Johnsen’s                question, Federal Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon said he believed the comments made were reckless attempts to scare hospital patients and possible hospital patients.

Mr Fitzgibbon assured that the bulk funding hospitals receive from both the federal and state governments was indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which means that if the carbon tax bill increases, hospitals are compensated with higher funding. 

He said the health and hospital reforms have increased the commonwealth share of funding to 60 per cent, and essentially relieved the state’s financial burden.

IN response to Nationals Candidate for Hunter Michael Johnsen’s                question, Federal Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon said he believed the comments made were reckless attempts to scare hospital patients and possible hospital patients.

Mr Fitzgibbon assured that the bulk funding hospitals receive from both the federal and state governments was indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which means that if the carbon tax bill increases, hospitals are compensated with higher funding. 

He said the health and hospital reforms have increased the commonwealth share of funding to 60 per cent, and essentially relieved the state’s financial burden.

IN response to Nationals Candidate for Hunter Michael Johnsen’s                question, Federal Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon said he believed the comments made were reckless attempts to scare hospital patients and possible hospital patients.

Mr Fitzgibbon assured that the bulk funding hospitals receive from both the federal and state governments was indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which means that if the carbon tax bill increases, hospitals are compensated with higher funding. 

He said the health and hospital reforms have increased the commonwealth share of funding to 60 per cent, and essentially relieved the state’s financial burden.

IN response to Nationals Candidate for Hunter Michael Johnsen’s                question, Federal Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon said he believed the comments made were reckless attempts to scare hospital patients and possible hospital patients.

Mr Fitzgibbon assured that the bulk funding hospitals receive from both the federal and state governments was indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which means that if the carbon tax bill increases, hospitals are compensated with higher funding. 

He said the health and hospital reforms have increased the commonwealth share of funding to 60 per cent, and essentially relieved the state’s financial burden.