On 8 August, Tanya Plibersek, the Commonwealth Minister for Health, assisted with turning the first sod for the construction of the Midland Health Campus on the outskirts of Perth.
It will include a 307 bed public hospital and a 60 bed private hospital to be run by St John of God Health which has a proud tradition of running first rate Catholic private hospitals. This, their first public hospital venture, 'will help meet the rapidly growing need for additional health and hospital services in eastern Perth', said Plibersek.
'For the first time, people from Midland and the surrounding area will have access to chemotherapy, high dependency care and coronary care and children will be able to be treated in a dedicated pediatric ward.'
Not everyone was overjoyed. Members from United Voice and the Health Services Union joined protesters opposed to government vesting the management of a public hospital in private hands. Carolyn Smith, acting secretary of United Voice, said, 'We don't oppose the Church running hospitals. We don't oppose St John of God running hospitals; they do a great job. But we don't think they should be running public hospitals.'
The protestors claim the public will suffer because some citizens, not sharing the Catholic view on some moral questions, want access to services such as abortion and sterilisation. They say a public hospital should offer the full suite of services, and not omit particular services simply because of the religious beliefs of the managers.
But no public hospital offers the full suite of all possible medical services. If abortions and sterilisations can be provided at other convenient locations, a Catholic provider should not be forced to provide these services which they believe to be morally questionable.
Two weeks later, Plibersek accompanied Prime Minister Gillard to the opening of the Kinghorn Cancer Centre within the St Vincent's Precinct at Darlinghurst, Sydney, which includes St Vincent's Public Hospital which has offered medical services (but not abortions or sterilisations) to the public for over 150 years.
The Kinghorn is a fabulous, state of the art facility, highlighting the benefits of medical and research facilities being provided not just by government health departments.
Julie Soon, a young survivor of leukaemia who received treatment at St Vincent's, said her 'cancer journey was long, dark and very lonely'. 'Therapies such as meditation and speaking with a social worker helped me cope with the roller coaster ride. With my recovery being a lot