Our Reef HQ is a blight
TOWNSVILLE has been named one of the top 10 places for heart failure, a silent killer that occurs when the heart is unable to keep up with the demands on it by other organs.
Heart failure is largely preventable and treatable but early intervention is vital.
Townsville’s disproportionate numbers of heart failure diagnoses has been largely attributed to poorer access to GPs than our capital city counterparts.
Effectively people are unnecessarily dying in Townsville because they aren’t receiving the same amount of medical care as people living in Sydney or Brisbane.
Townsville is just one of a list of regional areas with higher than average cardiac issues with the condition also common in areas like Geelong, Cairns, Newcastle and the Northern Territory.
The opposite should be occurring. People move to regional cities such as Townsville to enjoy a better quality of life, relaxed lifestyle and beautiful weather.
People shouldn’t be dying from a largely preventable condition.
But studies show people, especially in regional centres, are reluctant to visit the doctor.
More than 3000 people are living with heart failure in Townsville and another 400 are diagnosed each year.
It’s a huge number for a city the size of Townsville.
Urgent investment in medical care in Townsville is needed to ensure more access and better relationships are built with GPs.
While some heart conditions are genetic, most are due to lifestyle activities.
This means that with a focus on prevention and early intervention, combined with better access to GPs, heart failure rates in Townsville could be greatly reduced.
If we don’t take action we could be facing a health crisis on our doorstep with our health system and hospitals inundated by people suffering cardiac issues. Royal Australian Navy’s first cruiser HMAS Melbourne is launched at Birkenhead, England American space probe Mariner 9 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on a journey to Mars Pope John Paul II arrives in France on the first visit by the head of the Catholic Church since the early 19th century I SAW ( TB, May 9) how Mayor Jenny Hill plans to do whatever she can to stymie Cairns’ bid to have a role in live reef aquarium tourism.
Dear, oh dear, how dare Cairns have the temerity to come at that sort of ( competitive) caper? With Townsville’s own Reef HQ attraction these days looking as bad as it does, I say give them a green light.
If Cairns can’t do a better job of catering for reef aquarium tourism than Townsville currently is, I’ll be very surprised.
While the Reef HQ aquarium itself is impressive enough, everything else down that end of Flinders St is looking dreadful.
I met an unhappy visitor in the Reef HQ precinct yesterday. To say she was unimpressed is putting it mildly. She described the place as a dump ( her words) and hence this letter.
The Reef HQ tourist “attraction” precinct is indeed unattractive. It is an embarrassment to Townsville City. I suggest Jenny Hill should go down to that end of town some time very soon to have a very careful look around.
If she parks her car on The Strand between Wickham and King streets, she will get an immediate impression of general property abandonment and streetscape neglect.
Then, going past the wreck of the Cri, toward Reef HQ itself, she won’t be able to avoid the negative visual effect of an unsightly vacant block directly opposite Reef HQ’s entrance.
Once inside the entrance of Reef HQ, the ambience plummets further. First, there is an abandoned cultural centre to the right and then a shabby, dingy old mall leading down towards the aquarium to the left. If our mayor hasn’t by then seen enough to turn any self- respecting tourist away ( and turn her stomach at the same time), she should go check out the public toilets down the end of the passageway to the left just before the aquarium entrance. That’ll do it for sure.
I urge Jenny Hill to give over throwing stones at Cairns and get that place fixed up before the next cruise ship docks in the harbour. I even suggest Reef HQ be taken off Townsville’s must see, must do, “best” tourist attractions list, until it is made presentable. R. MURRAY,
Cranbrook.