July 18, 2015
by Dafyd Martindale
On Wednesday morning, South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann issued an impassioned appeal for the South Burnett community to get behind his push to keep the South Burnett Private Hospital in operation.
He asked residents to sign a simple one-page letter of support; and asked anyone who belongs to a club, sports group or other organisation to take blank copies along to their next meeting and ask other members to sign up too.
The Mayor has an ambitious target.
He wants to gather 5000 letters in just seven days (ie by next Wednesday, July 22).
He believes that if he knocks on doors in George Street and Canberra armed with such compelling, overwhelming evidence of community support, the decision maskers who hold the real power to keep this hospital operating in our region will pay attention to just how critical the situation is.
The evidence to date – 4 days later – is that our region has heard his call and is lending its support to the Mayor’s cause in overwhelming numbers.
In the last 96 hours we’ve seen petitions handed around at every meeting we’ve attended.
We’ve seen local doctors, dentists, physiotherapists and vets hand them to every client who walks through their doors.
We’ve seen senior citizens buttonholing passers-by in the street to sign up.
We’ve seen Chamber of Commerce members going door to door along CBDs to gather the signatures of local shopkeepers.
We’ve seen churches passing them out to their congregations at Sunday services.
And we’ve seen local RSL Clubs proudly displaying the letters on their front desks, ready for members to sign.
We’ve followed every twist and turn of this story over the last two months, ever since former Private Hospital managers Pulse Health announced their decision to pull out of our region at short notice.
We’ve catalogued the Mayor’s almost superhuman efforts to lobby State and Federal politicians and bureaucrats to lend a hand.
We even published one woman’s own compelling personal experience of being a Private Hospital patient, and her views about why we need to keep this facility operating in our region.
Frankly, when the Mayor says the continued existence of the hospital is “a matter of life or death”, he is not exaggerating.
We think he is correct that if the Private Hospital closes, the public Kingaroy Hospital will be unable to cope with the workload.
With no disrespect to any of the wonderfully dedicated health professionals who work there, this facility is desperately due for replacement and staff are already overworked coping with their share of current demand.
We think loading the Private Hospital’s caseload on their shoulders would simply be asking too much.
But that is exactly what will happen if the Private Hospital closes its doors.
We also think the convenience of being able to consult a wide range of specialists locally – an amenity the Private Hospital provides to all of us – far outweighs the alternative, which are long, expensive and time-consuming trips to Toowoomba or Brisbane.
Trips often undertaken when people are very ill.
So if you haven’t signed a letter yet, we urge you to do so.
And you can do it right now.
There is an online form on the South Burnett Regional Council’s site you can complete in just a minute.
But if you have signed a real-world letter, then please make sure you get it back to the front desk of a Council office by Wednesday, July 22.
And thankyou for taking a minute or two out of your busy day to stand up for our region.
- Related article: Mayor Appeals For Public Support
