When Barry O’Farrell’s Coalition government rode to power in 2011, temporarily turning the Hunter’s political map from red to blue along the way, a big new hospital at Maitland was one of the first projects championed by the incoming administration.
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Initially, $20 million was pledged for planning, and in 2013 the government announced a former brickworks site at Metford had been selected for the hospital.
Announcing another $25 million in planning funds in the lead-up to the 2015 election, Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the new hospital would be on a site six times the size of the existing hospital.
It would include an expanded emergency department, additional inpatient beds, cancer services and improved mental health services “among other enhancements”, Ms Skinner said at the time.
But as history shows, the Coalition lost Maitland among a swag of seats in last year’s election, and a growing number of questions are emerging about the delivery of a health project that is long overdue, in whatever form it finally takes.
Answering questions from the Fairfax Media, the NSW Ministry of Health has confirmed that a final business case has been lodged for the hospital, but it has provided no details beyond pledging that it will provide “enhanced services” in a “state-of-the-art building”.
But as Maitland mayor Peter Blackmore has confirmed, senior doctors associated with the existing Maitland Hospital are concerned that the government is downgrading its commitment to the new hospital, prompted at least partly by a push-back from forces within the Hunter New England Local Health District. This lobby apparently wants any extra government money spent in Newcastle rather than Maitland.
Cr Blackmore says he shares the concerns of the Maitland doctors, as does the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association, which has written to Ms Skinner and issued a public statement warning the government was pushing a design that would “fall short of community needs”.
As things stand, it is obvious that a plan to build a major new hospital was always going to have regional impacts and Hunter Health has every right to advise the government based on its localised and specialised knowledge. But the government has pledged, repeatedly, to build this hospital, and it must keep to its promise, in full.
