News

Health in Victoria Park a priority for Andrew Owens

22 February 2006

Specialist health services at Bentley Hospital along with mental and other health services in the Bentley area are essential to the wellbeing of local residents and the South Eastern Corridor and must be maintained, said Andrew Owens, Independent candidate for Victoria Park, while unveiling his health policy in East Victoria Park yesterday.

"I am happy to support the Australian Medical Association (WA) and to commit to maintaining these vital services if elected," said Mr Owens.

"It shouldn't be that one has to go across the river or down to Murdoch or Fremantle to get basic medical or other health services when they are offered here already.

"Many residents have expressed anger to me that with the stroke of a pen somewhere in the CBD, lives can be turned upside down and our elderly and sick and their carers and families can be treated like second-class citizens. These are real people, not numbers in an accounting ledger, and their needs must be taken into account.

"The stories of the vulnerable in our community are simply not being heard at all by either the Labor Government or the Liberal opposition, and I applaud the AMA (WA), the City of Canning and the many residents' groups who managed to force the Government's hand on this matter.

"Already, health services have been significantly affected by years of cutbacks and economic rationalism, and I know of specific instances where disabled people have had to travel on public transport to Shenton Park to get the services they need.

"Overall, services are declining in the Bentley area - for example, the local library and the aquatic centre - and as an Independent I am committed to fighting for a quality of life for ordinary people in the Victoria Park-Bentley area that it seems 60 years of safe ALP representation has not accorded them."