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Community rallies behind hospital petition

Community support has been overwhelming and the amount of signatures gathered shows that the community is not willing to let the State Government strip its essential health services.

By Craig Ingram - 15th April 2004 - Back to News

Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, today thanked the thousands of East Gippsland residents who had signed a petition calling on the government to ensure adequate funds to save the essential services which have been cut at the Bairnsdale Hospital.

"Community support has been overwhelming and the amount of signatures gathered shows that the community is not willing to let the State Government strip its essential health services.

"The level of State Government funding must increase to ensure the specialist and regular surgical operations can be conducted locally.

"I believe the Bairnsdale Regional Health Service Board has been placed in an unfortunate situation and ultimately it is the government who can assist in ensuring that funding is increased to assist in retaining these services.

"Well over 6500 signatures have been gathered so far and I expect that number will rise dramatically by the end of the week as petitions flow in from outlying areas.

"Many members of the community took it upon themselves to actively seek people to sign the petitions and I extend my thanks to these people and also to the businesses in the region which assisted."

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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