A division of the Liberal Party of Australia
RUDD’S LABOR OPPOSES THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW WING AT TOWNSVILLE HOSPITAL
28 August, 2008
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The Rudd Labor Government this morning opposed a Motion in the Senate in which Senator Ian Macdonald successfully moved that the Commonwealth and State Governments urgently fund and commence construction of the promised new wing at the Townsville General Hospital.
“The crisis at the Townsville Hospital, not to mention other hospitals around the state, has gone well beyond ‘playing politics’ and I am absolutely appalled that the Rudd Government would rather allow sick people to have to wait in hallways for a bed, than to support a Motion put forward by a Liberal Senator.
“The Townsville Hospital is in crisis. Surgery has been cancelled. Yesterday 60 people were crammed into the Emergency Room and 22 people were waiting for inpatient beds.
“If Mr Rudd and his Government cannot see that this is a hospital in critical need of more beds and resources, I am deeply concerned for the future of the health system and the future of this country.
“Although the Townsville Hospital is clearly a State Government responsibility, I along with most Northerners, have just about given up on them and their incompetence.
“None of us can forget Mr Rudd’s boast that ‘the buck stops with me’. It is time for him to honour that promise – and accept the will of the Senate by funding the construction of the new wing as a matter of urgency” Senator Macdonald said.