WHINGERS IN SICK SYSTEM

OPPONENTS of a decision to build a new Tweed hospital on land just outside of Kingscliff should wake up to reality.

The horse has bolted.

This has been one of the most sensible points raised in the debate over where a new hospital should be built, coming from Kingscliff Chamber of Commerce member Paul McMahon, who warns growth is happening regardless of whether a hospital is built. As Mr McMahon said in a recent Bulletin report, Kingscliff is no longer a small coastal town. That argument also applies to Tweed Heads, where the existing hospital is struggling with the demands of a rapidly growing population with a large proportion of elderly residents.

In fact the horse has bolted for much of northern NSW, yet local authorities and blinkered residents keep demanding a halt to development and infrastructure that must happen if they are to have proper health services and are to be liberated from traffic issues that already have the heart of Byron Bay, for example, at a standstill.

The irony in the Tweed is that many of those opposed to the site earmarked for the $524 million new hospital, which the NSW Government wants to gift to the area, are the very people who will need its services. They should look in the mirror and accept they’re not getting any younger.

Then there are younger objectors who would deny cancer patients, for example, treatment in their own area.

But while these people stubbornly dig their heels in, the doctors and nurses at the struggling Tweed Hospital who deal with emergency cases, or who try to treat lifethreatening illnesses, are flailing around.

The hospital has insufficient beds and – as we report today – is often having to resort to ambulance bypass, except for the most serious cases.

It is one thing to argue about global warming and preservation of farmland. It’s another to wake up to the reality that the Tweed has become a high population area and must have the infrastructure to cope.

Gold Coast hospitals are not exactly empty, but Queensland’s Health Minister says that of course, the Gold Coast health system will not turn away Tweed patients.

However the Tweed councillors and objectors opposed to the site for the new hospital should not see the Gold Coast’s hospitals as some sort of get-out-of-jail card. NIMBY attitudes should be put aside and they must do something for the good of their community.