Hundreds of protesters rallied against a proposed public-private partnership at Bowral Hospital last weekend, with similar numbers expected at a rally for Shellharbour Hospital next Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The NSW Government wants non-government operators to redevelop and run Shellharbour, Maitland and Wyong hospitals, and provide services at Bowral.
Parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward said public patients would be covered under a PPP, however unions claim it would result in an ‘’Americanisation’’ of the health system.
Union representatives from the Health Services Union, NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, the doctors’ union as well as local nurses congregated at Glebe Park, near Bowral Hospital, last Sunday to reject the plans.
NSWNMA general secretary Brett Holmes said a PPP would shift the focus of the hospitals.
‘’The public service delivers just as effectively as the private but it does so with more skill, more nurses and more educators,’’ he said.
‘’In the private sector it is all about making money for the shareholders, and that is not what our public sector should be about.’’
NSWNMA Shellharbour branch members have organised a protest rally at Benson Basin – corner Wattle and Lake Entrance roads – from noon on November 6.
