RE: Next Steps For Facility (June 18).
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The report that Bathurst Regional Council is to consider being involved in a partnership with the developers of the proposed private hospital planned for the old Clancy Motors site is a cause for great concern.
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought that health care is the responsibility of the State Government with assistance from the Federal Government.
By all means, push for more and better health facilities for Bathurst, but not with ratepayers' money; that's what we pay taxes for.
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In addition, if this proposal goes ahead, there will be "commercial in confidence" provisions that will prevent ratepayers knowing where and how their money is spent.
We have enough of these secret arrangements already; for example, Mount Panorama.
We need more transparency about council activities, not more of the same.
At the end of the day, this is not something ratepayers should be forced to support.
It is a commercial enterprise designed to make a profit for investors and it is from the investors that the money should come, not the ratepayers of Bathurst.
It's doubtful that the state or federal governments would be prepared to stump up the cash, given the poor track record of public-private hospitals in NSW.
Time for the council to concentrate on their basic responsibilities, such as properly maintaining the Indoor Sports Stadium, rather than throwing our money at private commercial businesses.