THE construction of a privately run hospital in Sydney's north will result in the closure of Manly Hospital and fewer beds at Mona Vale Hospital, the NSW government says.
The opposition has warned it will produce inadequate healthcare, while the Greens say many residents of the northern beaches will be isolated from the new facility at Frenchs Forest.
The government called for expressions of interest on Thursday for the 423-bed Northern Beaches Hospital, which will be designed, constructed, operated and maintained by the private sector.
The new hospital would provide a mix of public and private services and would be run by an operator "with a proven record", Health Minister Jillian Skinner said.
Construction will begin on the hospital in 2015 and it will take patients from 2018, with ownership reverting to the state after 20 years.
"We intend that Manly hospital close the day this hospital opens," Ms Skinner said.
She said acute services would be relocated from Mona Vale Hospital, which would be redeveloped to provide complementary health services and downsized to house 66 patient beds.
The new hospital would provide the same number of public beds as currently available at Mona Vale and Manly, but double the number of private beds, Ms Skinner said.
An urgent care centre would be established at Mona Vale hospital in place of its full emergency department, she said.
Greens NSW MP John Kaye said northern beaches residents had been "comprehensively dudded" by the announcement.
"They are losing a public hospital. They are losing services at Mona Vale ... to a new hospital site that is inappropriately served by transport and that's a long way away from the northern half of the northern beaches," he told AAP.
Residents from the upper end of the northern beaches at Palm Beach would have a 30km trip to Frenchs Forest rather than the current 14km to Mona Vale.
Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said he had major concerns about whether a private operator could run the new hospital.
"This is not a first for NSW. This happened 20 years ago at Port Macquarie and that's a game that ended in tears," Dr McDonald told reporters.
He predicts patient care will suffer as a result of the decision.
"Private operators exist to provide a profit for their shareholders," he said.
Ms Skinner, however, rubbished comparisons to previous private-public-partnership ventures, saying the new hospital represented a "totally new model" for healthcare in NSW.
Treasurer Mike Baird, also the local MP for Manly, said there were no plans to sell off the prime North Head real estate at the Manly Hospital site for apartments.
He told parliament that sometimes "you have to make the difficult decisions to make things happen".
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
NSW to open one hospital, close another
Dengan url
https://koplakbolang.blogspot.com/2013/05/nsw-to-open-one-hospital-close-another.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
NSW to open one hospital, close another
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
NSW to open one hospital, close another
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar