The Daily Examiner Health is bled dry 4 July 2011:
TWO members on the North Coast health advisory board have been dumped and replaced by two failed former Coalition political candidates on the re-titled Northern NSW Local Health Board District, leaving the Clarence with only one representative on the 10-member board.
Yamba-based solicitor Bob Thompson and Tweed-based doctor David Hodgson were both dropped from the board appointed under the former Labor government and replaced with former Liberal Party candidate for Page Malcolm Marshall and former National Party candidate for Richmond Dr Sue Page Mitchell.
Former board member and Grafton radio station manager Ron Bell resigned a few weeks ago for personal reasons and has not been replaced by another representative from the Clarence Valley.
It leaves the Clarence area with only one member on a board dominated by members from the Richmond area, and has raised serious concerns the health needs of the Clarence will be swept aside because of the political strength of representation in the Richmond……….
The lack of representation from the Clarence area was a major concern and he cited the recent appointment of an orthopedic surgeon to Grafton as an area of potential problems.
…. that surgeon would treat patients who previously would have been treated at Coffs Harbour or Lismore, but the funding needed for those operations now needed to be transferred from Coffs and Lismore to Grafton.
Taking money from the Coffs and Lismore budgets would be difficult, because of the strong Richmond area representation on the board.
Mayor Richie Williamson, Mr Bell and chairman of the Grafton Base Hospital Medical Staff Council Dr Allan Tyson all expressed similar concerns about the composition of the board and the lack of representation from the Clarence Valley.
The Daily Examiner NSW Health District Board changes 5 July 2011:
“There were people who were not re-appointed.
“In some cases, that was simply due to other applicants being more experienced and skilled in the required areas of governance and finance.
“In other cases, it was because those people were not performing adequately.”
Ouch....
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