Coastwatchers Association welcomes the fact that the hospital debate is hotting up again. “If the Shire is to have one regional hospital we should not rely on Council to find the best location,” says Jenny Edwards, the association’s secretary.

“Senior Council staff would dearly like to engage in a private-public partnership, something along the lines of Council providing the land and some private enterprise building and possibly operating the hospital. Naturally the details will be confidential and ratepayers are unlikely to know what it will really cost them until many years down the track. It could be a very expensive exercise in more ways than one, ” says Mrs Edwards. “ The recent collapse of the Port Macquarie hospital, another public-private partnership, is a case in point.”

Coastwatchers says that the land Council is considering is part of the coastal forest between Broulee and the Moruya River on the western side of George Bass Drive. Land that is largely classified as a vulnerable ecosystem and habitat for Yellow-bellied Gliders.

Coastwatchers believes that one of the main reasons that Council prefers this location is because of the money they see it will generate to fund the airport and other projects. “The best location for patients is not high on the agenda,” claimed Mrs Edwards.

The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources also supports a regional hospital but it maintains that the hospital should go in one of the major towns. Such a location would complement the existing hospital, doctors’surgeries, specialist rooms, and other established medical services. Moruya was suggested by the Department’s planners as the logical central location in discussions on the Draft Settlement Strategy.

“Coastwatchers agrees with the Department that any new hospital should complement an existing one,” Mrs Edwards said. “To locate it elsewhere will only contribute to the destruction of the coast in urban sprawl, something that the community definitely does not want.”

“No doubt Council’s senior staff will continue to lobby hard for the south Broulee hospital option. They obviously think this will be best for ratepayers’ pockets. Coastwatchers asks will it be the best location for patients? It certainly won’t be best for the Nature Coast environment we share.”