Why is Tumut being left out in the cold?

SIR, - My nameless critic (Thmut & Adelong Times Friday, September 15, 2005) misses the point, and the point is this.

When health services are privatised and there is no alternative service offered by the public health system, people suffer.

And I for one am not prepared to remain silent when I know that my fellow citizens are being treated unfairly by big business and governments, especially when this affects people's health. Being "grateful" to a private company doesn't come into it. This company is not a charity. There are profits to be had in radiology, as there are in pathology and pharmaceuticals.

There is no need to doff our caps and feel beholden to them, especially when there are such obvious deficiencies in the service to this area, and especially when other contractors could offer a better service - given the chance.

Country people are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity by both private . enterprise and government. We are not lesser beings. We pay the same taxes as our city cousins.

Yet our health facilities seem to be slowly but surely withdrawn to other locations or allowed to deteriorate to the point where they fall over and are not replaced. (Case in point - the withdrawal of radiology from Batlow, and Thmut hospital which now resembles a rabbit warren.)

There now seems to be an expectation that country people should travel to regional and city centres for medical treatment.

This is the very point I was making which seems to have escaped my anonymous detractor.

Some people - pensioners, frail and elderly, cannot travel. They do not owti cars, and if they do, cannot afford the price of the petrol it takes to get to Wagga Wagga, Canberra or Sydney.

They cannot afford the high cost of radiology and many other specialist services. And some of them are now going without.

Australians elect governments to do a job. That job is to serve the people.

The whole point of electing governments is to ensure that essential services, (e.g. health, communications, roads) are provided universally, including areas that are unprofitable to commercial enterprise, e.g. country areas.

We do not want a two tiered health system in this country, i.e. one for the rich and one for the poor, as is the case in the US where the dollar rules.

Make no mistake, there is one underlying motive which drives all private enterprise. Profit. Without profit, there is no justification for commerce and it moves on, or folds.

Fairness and equity are regarded as essential ingredients of what it means to live in Australia. Government backed utilities are necessary to unerpin that egalitarian nature of our Australian society.

I do not question the right of any company, including the corporation I-Med which now apparently owns the radiology company in Wagga Wagga, to conduct its business.

I have never said or implied that the staff of that company are anything other than friendly.

I have said, however, that radiology in Canberra and Sydney is cheaper, (in some cases bulk billed) and results are to hand within hours as a matter of course, not just in an emergency.

The people of Tumut Shire need to wake up to what is going on in this region's health services and ask why is Tumut Shire being left out in the cold?

Why have smaller towns and centres got new ultrasound machines, (paid for by the Department of Health), new multi purpose health centres, new hospitals, when we are expected to wait another 10-15 years for our hospital (which is over 100 years old) to be replaced?

What have these other towns got that Tumut doesn't? Or, who do they know that we don't?

Tumut residents have been vocal about a number of issues lately - a bridge, the destruction of our beautiful river, the burning of refuse.

We are not afraid to take on bureaucrats or big business.

Health services are vital to our community, so I hope that the same people who have been vocal on these issues will be as vocal this week when officials from our area health service come to Thmut on Thursday.

Many people have expressed their opinions to me about the deficiencies of our health services and I thank them for that.

I am happy to take up matters with politicians and bureaucrats on their behalf, but I'm not the one holding the purse strings.

Come and express those same opinions to the people who do hold the purse strings, at the public meeting on Thursday.

My thanks to the many people of the district who have given me support, especially the health professionals who are prevented from speaking publicly about their concerns.

I urge everyone in Tumut, Adelong, Batlow and the surrounding districts to attend the public meeting this week.

It is to be held at 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, September 22, at Tumut RSL Club.

Yours etc.,

Sue Swann

Tumut

Tumut & Adelong Times

Tuesday September 20 2005