Surgeries will be delayed, nurse and doctor numbers will decline and emergency department wait times will increase in Ipswich, the Somerset Region and the Karana Downs region, following the Turnbull Government cutting $4.61 million from local public hospitals from 2017-2020.

Turnbull is cutting hundreds of millions out of Australia’s public hospitals between 2017- 2020, with the Ipswich Hospital’s $4.53 million cut equivalent to 1,258 cataract surgeries or 174 knee replacements.

Each public hospital in Blair will be worse off:

• Ipswich Hospital – $4.53 million
• Esk Hospital – $80,000

Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann MP, says that it says it all about Turnbull’s priorities that he is happy to give big business a tax handout but won’t properly fund public hospitals and give locals the health care they need.

“Every dollar cut from our public hospitals is a dollar cut from sick and vulnerable patients,” said Mr Neumann.

“Our community relies on our public hospitals to provide the health care they need to get back to good health.

“Access to health care should be determined by your Medicare card – not your credit card.

“Labor created Medicare, we will always fight to protect Medicare, and we will fight these cuts to our local hospitals on behalf of patients from Ipswich, the Somerset Region and the Karana Downs region.”