Tweed Valley Hospital dispute just the latest outbreak of extreme NIMBYitis in Gold Coast region

IT’S a disturbing condition. Symptoms include fear, delusion and feelings of nausea. NIMBYitis is spreading through the Gold Coast and the Tweed – here’s how we can cure it.

IT’S a strange and disturbing malady. It has dangerous consequences. And it is spreading fast.

Those affected can exhibit symptoms including fear, delusion and feelings of nausea.

Sadly, for sufferers and those who must suffer them, there is no known cure to the NIMBYitis that has spread through our city.

There were the poor sufferers who objected to the installation of the Instrument Landing System at Gold Coast Airport – a vital safety feature.

There are the unfortunate souls who are so struck down that they object to the extension of the light rail to Burleigh.

But this week we have seen perhaps the most serious case of all.

As the Bulletin reported yesterday, protesters this week not only held up preliminary work at the site of the new Tweed Valley Hospital, but threatened to boycott any local tradies who dare offer their services.

Protesters at the Tweed Valley Hospital site on Monday.

It’s worth reminding ourselves that the proposal that has generated such hysteria is for a very badly needed piece of infrastructure.

The current Tweed Hospital is, according to the dedicated medical staff who work there, “old and worn out” and running at 118 per cent capacity.

This affects patients of all kinds. Old and infirm patients. Cancer patients. Children.

“We have outgrown the space that we’re in at the moment,” said Sam Peterson, acting nursing unit manager in the paediatric ward at Tweed Hospital.

Ms Peterson eagerly awaits the day when her young patients can have some respite from their treatment with play spaces and outdoor areas, where they can enjoy “sunshine and fresh air.”

“It’s going to be great for families,” she said.

The ageing Tweed Hospital, which is operating at 118% capacity. Picture: Jerad Williams

Ryan Armstrong, a nursing unit manager, said he had seen the area “grow and grow” in his almost 20 years as a nurse.

“It (the new hospital) is something that we need,” he said.

For Tweed Medical Staff Council co-chair and director of emergency Dr Rob Davies, one of the most pressing issues is the large distance residents of the area, including cancer patients, are forced to travel to access many services.

“At present a lot of cancer patients have to go either privately or they may have to go to Gold Coast or Brisbane, sometimes to Lismore, for care,” he said.

“They may actually have to have care in multiple places at once.

“At the Tweed Valley Hospital, a comprehensive cancer care service is going to be developed there so the patients have a one-stop shop.”

Against all this we have the stirring campaign from opponents. Chief among their concerns ... potatoes.

The site chosen for the $534 million new hospital is on a former sweet potato farm.

According to protesters, this is “state significant farmland”, whatever that is supposed to mean.

If it’s so “significant”, I question why anyone would be growing sweet potatoes there.

I grow sweet potatoes myself, in my back yard. I guarantee you, the clay soil in my garden would never be considered farmland of note. I kill more plants than I successfully cultivate.

Yet sweet potatoes grow easily, the vines spreading as efficiently as weeds.

Nonetheless, objectors claim losing a couple of hectares of sweet potato farmland to make way for the new Tweed Valley Hospital would be a travesty that would somehow affect food supplies.

But this is not Ireland in the mid-1800s. Despite the best efforts of local Greens, locals are not at risk of starvation in a potato famine.

Starving peasants during the Irish potato famine.

It’s all quite ridiculous. Surely there are other reasons for their strong objections.

Indeed there are. And they’re plucked straight from the NIMBY hymnbook.

Tweed Shire Mayor Katie Milne – a leading figure in this week’s protests – says residents are “horrified by what they see as bringing the Gold Coast sprawl south of the river with this massive hospital development.”

“With one disastrous decision such as this, years of hard work to stop overdevelopment will be lost and the domino effect will spread like cancer down the coast,” she said.

Crikey.

Remember what we are talking about here. Not a unit block, a factory or a pollutant-belching chemical plant, but a hospital, one which the medical community says is badly needed. For existing residents.

Ms Milne fears a “cancer” of development. But the hospital is most needed for those suffering cancer of a more serious kind.

Tweed District Mayor Katie Milne with protesters at the Tweed Valley Hospital site on Monday. Photo: Scott Powick

As for the Gold Coast, well, Ms Milne may consider it a dreadful place, but the Tweed patients availing of the state-of-the-art facilities at the Gold Coast University Hospital at Southport may have cause to differ.

When a campaign against a hospital of all things can reach such a level, one that leaves local tradies facing boycotts, one can only conclude that we have reached peak NIMBY.

What could possibly be the cure?

If the sight of a shovel in the ground makes you squeamish, you may want to consider the following steps.

Visit a cancer ward or a children’s ward. See people who really do have something serious to worry about.

See their brave and stoic nature.

Speak with the staff who work tirelessly to help them.

Now look in the mirror. Ask if what irks you is really all that important.

And go find yourself a more worthy cause.