THE Tasmanian Greens candidate for the Upper House division of Derwent, Phillip Bingley, yesterday called on Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne to confirm to the Derwent Valley community when the New Norfolk Hospital's X-ray service would be be re-established. "With the closure of the Ouse Hospital several years ago, the State Government stated that it would improve health services in the Derwent Valley, yet the most basic service, having an x-ray, has not been available in New Norfolk, despite there being a fully equipped facility," Mr Bingley said.
“It has been too long for the Derwent Valley to have been without such a critical service. It is a significant burden on the Tasmanian Ambulance Service to have to transport elderly residents to Hobart to have a simple X-ray; having a local facility available will free up the ambulances for the emergencies that they are really needed for. It can be very distressing for the frail and elderly in our community, including residents at ... Corumbene Nursing Home, to spend the best part of a day travelling to Hobart or Glenorchy, often waiting for hours to be seen, when they should be able to go to their local hospital, and then have the resulting images sent directly to their doctor.”
Mr Bingley said Ms O'Byrne had previously indicated that a new computerised X-ray system would be introduced at the Royal Hobart Hospital in July and should give regional hospitals like New Norfolk District Hospital instant access to imaging results. "This needs to be confirmed to the local community,” Mr Bingley said.
Please note: The writ for the Legislative Council election was issued yesterday. By law, comments relating to the election must now include the given name, surname and locality of the writer. Anonymous comments cannot be published.
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