Community turn the first sods on the new hospital

With an election in the air it was inevitable that there would be a grand fanfare of NSW Government Ministers arriving in Moruya to stand at a dais over looking a paddock and declare, with the aid of a silver shovel, that the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital site was now officially blessed. As has been seen in the past during any election leadup there would be the presence at the ceremony of invitation only media and invited guests, that included the Liberal candidate somewhere in the back line, nodding in agreeance to the electioneering rhetoric that was more to do with spin than the actual task at hand. Oddly, as has been the case over and over with visits by the Minister for Health, the public would be missing. With that in mind members of the community today attended the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital site, led by long time hospital advocate, Dr Michael Holland, to take it upon themselves to have their own inclusive sod turning of their Eurobodalla Regional Hospital.

February 6th, 2023 - the day when the community turned the first sod on the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital project.

The date of February 6th at 10am came about when it was revealed that a secret, invitation only opening was scheduled. Armed with that information members of the One Hospital Eurobodalla, their supporters and nursing representatives prepared to attend and seek answers from the Minister for Health to a string of questions around the new hospital and the staffing levels; the same questions that the Premier ducked the week before when he, and the local Liberal Candidate opened the Moruya Emergency Department demountable.

Above: One Hospital Eurobodalla member Mylene Boulting at the Moruya Markets last Saturday. With the sods having now been turned on the new hospital site by the community there is little reason for the Minister and his selected entourage to replicate the event. To do so, especially with the community not invited, nor the local federal Member, State Member or Local Mayor, would only serve to display the 'ceremony' as an empty photo opportunity. It is rumoured that the Minister and his entourage might reschedule their long overdue announcement of the start of work at the end of February, just weeks out from the end off the term of the current government. Maybe, if the Minister dares to make an appearance in the region he, with his Minister for Regional Health, might bring real answers to the many community questions being asked that are not being satisfactorily answered.