Local midwife and current Shoalhaven City Councillor Annette Alldrick has been announced as Labor’s candidate for the state seat of South Coast.
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In announcing Mrs Alldrick’s candidature, shadow health minister Walt Secord said one of Labor’s focuses locally was health and in particular Shoalhaven District Hospital.
However, despite calling it one of the state’s “most under pressure medical facilities” Mr Secord would not commit to an upgrade, saying Labor would announce its policy and “what it would do closer to the election.”
“The commitment we will give to Shoalhaven Hospital will put a smile on family’s lips,” he said.
Interestingly Labor’s announcement outside Shoalhaven District Hospital coincided with the same time that South Coast and Kiama MPs Shelley Hancock and Gareth Ward were launching the start of work on a new multi-level car park at another location on the hospital campus.
Mrs Alldrick said there were lots of issues confronting the South Coast including health, education and transport and she was “frustrated by the divide between the city and the South Coast.”
“There are so many issues - our hospital, our schools, the Princes Highway, public transport in the Milton Ulladulla area,” she said.
“There has been so much neglect here - I want to fight to improve these services on the South Coast.”
She said her main focus was Shoalhaven District Hospital.
“I have worked here for 15 years,” she said “I have seen the hospital stagnant while the population has grown exponentially - not just the permanent population but the holiday population.
“People come to our emergency department and have to wait and wait.
“Quite often in our emergency department we have people being admitted to hospital and can’t get beds.
“That has a knock on effect to the ambulances who can't unload, then the ambulance is stuck at the hospital, then if someone calls an ambulance they have to wait.
“We need this hospital to grow with the community.
“We need more beds - I think we need more beds before we need a car park - and we need the nurses and midwives to look after those patients.”
“NSW has a health and hospital system under enormous pressure and the Shoalhaven has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the most under pressure hospitals – outside western Sydney,” Mr Secord said.
“The Shoalhaven has some of the longest waits for elective surgery in the state with the median wait stretching to almost a year.
“The Liberals and Nationals have the wrong priorities; they would prefer to spend billions on stadiums in Sydney rather than properly supporting our health and hospital system.
“This area has been neglected by Shelley Hancock and Gareth Ward. They have taken this region for granted and assumed people will re-elect them.
“The Liberals lurch from crisis to crisis.”
He said on June 14, Mrs Hancock claimed that between $300 and $400 million was needed to upgrade Shoalhaven Hospital, however, only $15 million was provided in planning money for Shoalhaven and six other hospitals.
In May, more than 50 cases of surgery had to be postponed, cancelled or sent to other hospitals due to a lack of beds and a lack of staff he said.
Mr Secord listed Independent Bureau of Health Information data released early June.
It showed more than a third – 34 per cent – of patients waited longer than four hours in emergency.
In the January-March 2018 quarter, 10 per cent of patients waited at least eight hours and 48 minutes in the emergency department.
And 57 per cent of patients arriving at the emergency department in the non-urgent categories, showing that families were under cost of living pressures. They were presenting with ailments that could be treated by a GP.
As of March 2018, there were 1,712 patients waiting for elective surgery at Shoalhaven Hospital, which includes cataract removal – 552 patients; ear, nose and throat surgery – 370 patients; orthopaedic surgery – 215 patients; total knee and hip replacements – 176 patients; and 144 patients waiting for tonsillectomies.
The median wait for non-urgent elective surgery was 322 days.
Each year, there are about 800 babies born at Shoalhaven hospital.