As a North Shore Mum you are well aware of the need for good access to health care on the North Shore for your family. Recently, RNSH underwent a long overdue redevelopment costing more than $1.27 billion, funded by the NSW Government. The new hospital provides a better environment to recuperate compared to the old “brown building” and the community has regained its confidence in its local hospital.
Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is your major teaching hospital on the North Shore with a world-class reputation for health care delivery. It serves the local community’s hospital health care needs. It provides tertiary services, such as cancer care, neonatology, cardiology, dialysis and transplantation, and it also provides statewide services for spinal injuries and burns. With a young family in tow, you have access to an excellent paediatric emergency and a paediatric ward.
Currently, The Royal North Shore Hospital occupies the smallest land area of any of the major tertiary referral hospitals in NSW. In the last two years alone, Emergency Department presentations have increased by 10 per cent and inpatient numbers by six per cent, which exceeds standard prediction models. The hospital staff, therefore, understands that in the future we need to keep the land surrounding the hospital for expansion of services. With an ageing population, increased population demand as high-rise development occurs along the Pacific Highway corridor, increased private health care premiums and limited existent real estate for public institutions, the burden of health provision on campuses, such as The Royal North Shore Hospital, has never been higher.
Yet in late 2014, unbeknownst to the hospital staff, Health Minister Jillian Skinner revealed her intention to sell off a section of RNSH land (part of the Hospital’s southern campus nearest the Pacific Highway) to a private developer. This was in spite of a previous campaign in 2011 by hospital staff to stop the previous Labour Government who wished to sell 30 per cent of the hospital land.
The estimated cost of the section of the southern campus is up to $98 million; essentially this only covers hospital running costs for six weeks. Therefore, another campaign was mounted by hospital staff in 2014 in which more than 17,500 local community members signed a petition. This has since been delivered to parliament for debate. And despite a media and social media campaign with more 2000 Facebook followers, still Minister Skinner refuses to negotiate. Read more about the campaign here.
What’s happening now, and how you can help
Now, in March 2015, the SAVERNSH campaign has escalated. Dr Stephen Ruff, a senior orthopaedic surgeon at RNSH, has declared his intent to stand against Jillian Skinner as an independent in the upcoming NSW election. This is an attempt to get her to come to the negotiating table and halt the land sale and engage with the staff regarding alternatives. Dr Ruff has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years. He understands how a hospital can grow and change and he is passionate about maintaining the campus size and preventing the sale of the land for a quick buck. He continues to operate and work as a full-time doctor and runs the campaign with hospital staff out of hours.
If you are interested in helping to support SAVERNSH and the campaign, please visit Dr Ruff’s Facebook page. Here, you can also volunteer to help out by mounting posters and manning polling booths.
Please, help us save our public hospital land for future generations.
An emergency doctor hands out campaign flyers in Ryde with a little helper.
