Anger at hospital services

RECENT comments in a Mareeba newspaper (7/6) by new board chairman for Cairns and Hinterland Health Service, Clive Skarott, stating that “hospital fears allayed” and “all services will remain” are misleading to the Mareeba and Dimbulah community and wider Cape.

Services are already depleted, as was discussed at length at the large public meeting at the Mareeba International Club on May 2, where 1000 concerned residents voted unanimously to have a list of services returned, plus new services of chemotherapy and dialysis included at the Mareeba District Hospital.

Mr Skarott, along with Minister Cameron Dick and other Queensland Health bureaucrats can continue to make as many press statements and speak of positive outcomes at public forums for the future at the Mareeba District Hospital. But, I can assure all of the above, that until the community see real, hard, physical, factual evidence of these services fully functional in the hospital, the ongoing campaign to save our Mareeba hospital services and the introduction of new services will continue indefinitely. Denis McKinley, Mareeba Concerned Citizens Group member