Who will want to live here with no private hospital?

OPINION: Specialists found it easier to stay on the Sunshine Coast or Brisbane than drive to Gympie

LETTER: I noticed the nursing staff, the domestic and catering staff in our hospital were on the run all the time attending to patients and chores in the hospital, and Blind Freddy could see the hospital was under-staffed. Picture: Troy Jegers

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Don't stay silent on hospital closure

OUR biggest "at home” shock concern now is the closing of our private hospital with its loss of staff jobs and all the other industries that go with it.

I have no idea who the new owners are.

The hospital has been going down in patient numbers for some time now and it is not all the hospital's fault.

Specialist doctors have not been supporting the hospital sufficiently to make it payable and some of our own GPs are changing addresses to the beach towns also.

Most specialists find it easier to stay on the Sunshine Coast or Brisbane than drive to Gympie.

As one cancer doctor said a few years ago when she was attending my husband Ron for his cancer, she could attend seven or eight patients at her Noosa base in the time she spent on the road to Gympie.

I noticed the nursing staff, the domestic and catering staff in our hospital were on the run all the time attending to patients and chores in the hospital, and Blind Freddy could see the hospital was under-staffed.

The big hospitals on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane do a good job as do our hospitals here and they all face the same problems. But people in Gympie are not happy if they are shipped south out of our friendly local public hospital just because they pay into private hospital funds.

They are also paying taxes like everyone else, but they are getting a rough deal if they are being denied a stay in our public hospital because of that. We are being encouraged to support spending on tourism and population growth. Who will want to live here if we don't have a private hospital as well as a public one to cover our health needs?

Have your say in this or lose it.

JULIA LAWRENCE OAM,

GYMPIE

O'BRIEN A DIFFERENT BREED OF POLITICIAN

I HAVE been friends with Llew O'Brien for near-on 20 years, so when I became aware that he was running for election in 2016 as Warren Truss's replacement, I was somewhat surprised.

After all, the Llew I know is more an instant coffee drinker than a latte sipper; he is a well-documented practical joker within his circle of friends and he also rode a postie bike to work for many years, to the amusement and jest of his colleagues.

Basically, I was surprised because the Llew I knew was just a regular guy.

I voted for him in 2016 out of loyalty. Since winning that election and taking up the baton of political responsibility, Llew has surprised me further.

I strongly believe he has adapted to the role of representing the people of Wide Bay superbly.

Llew has worked with energy and passion.

First and foremost he has delivered on his core promise of upgrading the region's highway. Llew, in defiance to his own party's stance, lobbied for a Royal Commission into the banking sector, and he has not stopped working to improve our region by championing a range of issues from mental health awareness to the destruction of the dairy industry by the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths.

I truly believe that Llew is a different breed of politician; a regular guy doing the best he can.

I will be voting for Llew again in the upcoming federal election, not because of loyalty this time, but because I believe he is a great representative for our region and because he gets the job done.

COL MORLEY,

PIE CREEK

FIX WIDE BAY HIGHWAY INTERSECTION

JUST a comment concerning the article from Llew O'Brien about the roadworks in Friday's edition of The Gympie Times. It's all good to do the intersections mentioned but really who makes these decisions when it is quite obvious the most critical intersection is the Bruce Highway and the Wide Bay Highway?

I go through that area regularly and you can see the traffic lined back out of sight on the Wide Bay Highway waiting for a chance to cut into the traffic on the Bruce. I have been cut off myself several times and seen a fair few near misses so really get the priorities right if we are talking safety.

DANIEL WEBSTER,

GLENWOOD