Gabrielle Duykers, Naracoorte Community News
A Liberal MP has expressed disappointment in his party for failing to match funding local health funding commitments made by the State Opposition, but says he will continue advocating on behalf of the community.
In an interview with Flow News 24, Liberal Member for MacKillop Nick McBride said he supported the Labor Party’s $52 million health pledge for the Limestone Coast, which addressed the “outdated” infrastructure in parts of the region.
Mr McBride said he had encouraged his government to match the funding before the State Election this Saturday, March 19.
“I was hoping and wanted our government to obviously recognise there is a priority there by the opposition basically, and hopefully we can match these sort of priorities,” he said.
“It’s the sort of infrastructure we need to make sure is of the highest quality rather than second standard to our city cousins.”
If elected, the Labor Party has committed to an $8 million upgrade of Naracoorte Hospital, $9.75 million to secure a seven-year funding agreement for Keith and Districts Hospital, and $24 million to upgrade the emergency department, mental health beds, and drug detox beds at Mount Gambier Hospital.
However, three days out from voting day these election promises are yet to be matched by the Marshall Liberal Government.
“It’s one of those things that doesn’t surprise me,” Mr McBride said. “But we will continue to be advocates and continue to highlight the need for these infrastructure upgrades.”
He said Labor having “led the way” on the issue would benefit his future lobbying.
“I can now go and say to my government, ‘this is what they want to roll out, why aren’t we participating in these upgrades and perhaps we should even be doing more’,” Mr McBride said.
Naracoorte Hospital recently saw the addition of a $3.1 million operating theatre and sterilising area, funded by the State Government.
However, the facility is still in desperate need of funding, with the last major upgrade occurring more than 20 years ago.
As previously reported by The News, the escalating rural doctor crisis saw Naracoorte Hospital left without an on-call doctor or locum for 27 days during 2020-21. Penola Hospital operated without a doctor for 21 days, and Bordertown Hospital had no emergency doctor for 4.5 days
In February, the State Government announced it would invest $188 million over the next two years to ease rural doctor shortages, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the SA branches of the Australian Medical Association (AMASA) and Rural Doctor Association (RDASA).
The commitment includes $50,000 sign-up bonuses for GPs working in remote communities amongst other incentives to help support doctors in providing better care to patients.
“We want GPs to be in medical clinics and be able to give localised and representative health care, and to also participate in our local hospitals like they used to,” Mr McBride said.
“We’ve seen that be fragmatized (sic) and the local GPs both at Naracoorte and Millicent struggle to be able to keep the hospitals manned by sheer shortage of numbers.
“This commitment will help capture regional GPs and work with them and get them into our local hospitals.”
Mr McBride said the improved availability and quality of health services in the Limestone Coast was crucial to social and economic prosperity.
“The population in our region’s needs to continue to increase, and I don’t like seeing it stagnate or growing slowly,” he said.
“While larger cities will always have a greater level of service and greater expertise when it’s required, we also have to make sure there’s a minimal type of expectation that looks after the fundamentals out in our regions.
“To allow local residents to be able to seek assistance and diagnosis for the slight incidences, and then make further appointments and connections to city specialists if that is required.”
If re-elected, the Marshall Liberal Government has promised to double the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme (PATS) fuel subsidy from 16 cents to 32 cents per kilometre.
PATS provides eligible clients with subsidies to assist people in regional areas with travel and accommodation costs for specialist health appointments in metropolitan areas, such as chemotherapy treatments.
“The increase in the subsidy is particularly important for people whose medical care requires
them to travel back and forth to Adelaide on a regular basis and will help improve equity of
access to health treatment for my community,” Mr McBride said.
“If patients do require to go to Adelaide because they need the intricate and more detailed services of a higher level, then we need that PATS scheme to actually assist those with those transport costs.”
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said health commitments from the Labor Party focused on updating local infrastructure and addressing other “key issues” identified by the Limestone Coast community.
“Steven Marshall should listen to local Liberal MP Nick McBride and match Labor’s commitment to invest in the Limestone Coast health system,” Mr Picton said.
“Our main focus at this election has been increasing the availability of services in regional areas – including by funding 10 additional full-time specialists in country areas – so less people have to travel to Adelaide for treatment.
“Each funding component in this package works towards modernising and upgrading vital health infrastructure and hiring more health workers for the region, which will play a role in attracting and retaining both services and staff in the region.”
This article appeared in Naracoorte Community News.
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