YOUR SAY: Access to hospital should be a priority not an afterthought

While celebrating the inauguration of a new emergency department with pomp and ceremony, the oversight of basic amenities like parking accessibility is deeply troubling.

Amidst the self-congratulatory atmosphere, not a single decision-maker seemed to recognise the crucial need for ample parking spaces at a regional hospital, both for patients and healthcare providers alike. While health services commend our clinical staff, true support means more than just lip service. If they struggle to access the health service due to parking issues or face fines in the process, there won't be nurses to thank.

It's disheartening to witness patients, already grappling with medical vulnerabilities and often mobility challenges, having to navigate such fundamental oversights. It's time accessibility became a central priority. After all, hospitals exist to serve the sick and infirm, accessing the place seems to have been an afterthought.

I have empathy for the lack of parking for hospital staff however I am very concerned re the traffic congestion now occurring in Grandview Terrace, East Albury.

This is a very narrow street (with no footpaths) and is a major bus route.

The cars now parking there all day, particularly near the corner of Palm Drive, are causing major obstructions for the buses and residents.

There is barely enough space for the buses to squeeze through, and two-way traffic is completely precluded.

One suggestion may be to allow parking on one side of Grandview Terrace only.

Society is losing the plot and minds are filled with screen time information and anger and violence. Through life, if many of us reflect, mentors played a big part in our lives and how we live now! We all need mentors through life and sadly many do not have them or value them.

Politicians need mentors to be in touch with the real world and real emotions. The reaction about a same sex parent book is an example of a divide in how we grow up; parents whatever their gender are about nurturing and loving and preparing a child for life!

Perhaps some movies that have great messages about mentors should be seen by families. The Intern and St Vincent or A Good Year and some classics like To Sir With Love and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner all have kind, value-packed messages! A book called Dinner with Edward carries a lovely message about caring and guiding.

The lack of good messages and feelings and role models must be corrected. Many good people in life will talk of people who had a positive place and influence in their life!

MORE COMMENT

Your correspondent Des Grigg is wrong when he asserts that we had a referendum in 2023 to decide whether or not Albury Council should set up an Aboriginal advisory committee (May 18). The referendum was on whether there should be a voice to the Australian Parliament.

The fact that this referendum did not get the numbers doesn't mean anything in relation to advisory committees to local councils or to any level of government for that matter.

Having attended the last two football matches at the Culcairn sports ground and seeing one reserves and one senior match abandoned because of the long wait time for an ambulance - thankfully none of the injuries, although severe, were life-threatening - it is surely time for an ambulance to be permanently based at either Culcairn or Henty, both towns with an ageing population and the Olympic Highway passing through them.

In May 1974, my father died in the Culcairn Hospital from a massive heart attack, and I have always wondered if an ambulance was based locally, could he have survived?

The specialist care that he required was only available at the old Albury Base Hospital.

The money that my mother and myself had to pay in death duties (tax) in 1974 would have paid for an ambulance station in Culcairn!

The Border Mail's report on May 9 that 68 people died waiting for surgery is both alarming and disgraceful and shows that city-based politicians and bureaucrats, both state and federal, place more emphasis on saving "money" than lives in rural Australia.

It would seem that Albury-Wodonga will have to forget the dream of a Rolls Royce-type new hospital, not even a Holden or Falcon model, instead what's being offered more resembles a clapped-out old "Trabbie"!

The prime minister and NSW and Victorian premiers have shown a total lack of interest in our region and obviously could not possibly care less!

They seem to regard us as fourth or fifth grade citizens at best.

The "greed" of Sydney and Melbourne and its people is increasing at an unprecedented rate and it's vital that our local members, both state and federal, along with local councils put away their petty party allegiances and work as one for the rural regions they represent.

The very survival of rural Australia as we know it depends on that!