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A Hunter nurse is urging the community to attend a public forum aimed at shedding light on plans for the Lower Hunter hospital.
The Maitland Mercury will host the information session at East Maitland Bowling Club from 6.30pm on Monday.
The event will feature a range of speakers who will face questions about the proposed hospital – ranging from location and services to funding and construction time-frames.
Michael Lawler, a NSW Nurses and Midwives Association delegate from Aberglasslyn who works at John Hunter Children’s Hospital, said everyone should be interested in the issue because “healthcare will affect all of us at some stage of our life”.
Mr Lawler has been a nurse for 42 years. He has worked at hospitals in Newcastle, Cessnock Hospital and Maitland Hospital – where he was born.
He said he was concerned about the prospect of a public-private partnership funding model for the new hospital and the effect that a focus on profits could have on the quality of healthcare.
Mr Lawler also said there appeared to be a lack of progress at the Metford site.
“Generally, people should understand that at many stages of their life they do need healthcare and we need, for the population growth in the Lower Hunter Valley especially, a modern and updated facility,” he said.
“Not just bed numbers, but also high quality new facilities.
“Now, with a new Health Minister, we really feel there is a potential that he may be able to put in the effort to ensure that this [hospital] becomes a reality.”
Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison, Hunter New England Local Health District chief executive Michael DiRienzo and Dr Ben Spies-Butcher, Senior Lecturer Economy and Society at Macquarie University, will speak at the forum.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association assistant secretary Judith Kiejda, Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes and Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation executive director Andrew Holland will then join Mr DiRienzo and Dr Spies-Butcher for a Q and A style panel discussion.
Fairfax Media Lower Hunter editor Eve Nesmith will emcee the event.
Nick Bielby
Nick Bielby is a crime reporter who has worked as a journalist since 2011. Having joined the Newcastle Herald in 2017, he won a Walkley Award in 2019 with Donna Page for their investigation 'Dirty Deeds', which exposed the decades of illegal dumping of toxic material in and around a Hunter waterway.
Nick Bielby is a crime reporter who has worked as a journalist since 2011. Having joined the Newcastle Herald in 2017, he won a Walkley Award in 2019 with Donna Page for their investigation 'Dirty Deeds', which exposed the decades of illegal dumping of toxic material in and around a Hunter waterway.
