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CAIRNS ONCOLOGY UNIT… A PRIORITY
Recently the Queensland Labor Government reneged on a previous undertaking to pay for half the cost of a "chemotherapy hood" at the Cairns Base Hospital.
At the time I criticised this backtracking by the Beattie Labor Government and it was shortly after that the Member for Cairns, Desley Boyle, said words to the effect that she would make representations to the State Government to have the offer revisited. To date the silence has been deafening.
It now appears that the Liberals have elected to capitalise on the Davenport Hospital
initiative by approaching the Federal Health Minister to support a 'business plan' that would see the Federal Government fund the proposal.
I would support any additional funding, and, in fact, suggested at the time of the Prime Minister's announcement about Commonwealth involvement in Tasmania that he could well consider other Queensland regions and I specifically mentioned Cairns as
being a worthy
recipient.
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I believe that the 'business plan' should be a relatively straight forward exercise as the figures I set out in my original article saw the State Government recouping all of the outlay costs in about two years, excluding local contributions.
This of course took no account of the savings to Cairns residents who must travel to Townsville or Brisbane, the costs of which probably exceed the cost of upgrading.
So I wish COUCH every success with this endeavour and restate my willingness to assist wherever I can to ensure that Cairns residents receive the best medical services possible.
I also believe that if any capital expenditure is to take place then my recommendations for a multi-sited Cairns Base Hospital, as acknowledged by State Health Minister, Stephen Robertson, be taken into consideration as in the medium term that will form the resolution of many of the hospital overcrowding problems.
It must be of considerable concern to Cairns residents, who have been lobbying for years for a major upgrade of the Cairns Base Hospital, to now witness the major parties busily announcing new 'policies' in an effort to 'buy' votes, with taxpayers' money, on the condition that 'they' hold or gain political POWER in Canberra.
However, the party politicians have again underestimated the voting population, as a majority of Australians are
far more politically sophisticated now than they were at the last election, particularly when it comes to the expenditure of taxpayer dollars.
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