Greedy grab for hospital site

by Rohan Gowland

Plans have been unveiled for the redevelopment of the land occupied by the 
Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney's eastern suburbs to allow for a 
residential housing estate and retail commercial shops.

The plans were quietly announced at a small public gathering earlier this 
month by the NSW Premier and local state member, Bob Carr. They include a 
99-year lease to a private developer to build residential housing and a 
shopping village on the hospital grounds.

The land occupied by the Prince Henry Hospital is much sought after prime 
coastal real estate.

The lease arrangement amounts to back-door privatisation of public land and 
the undermining of a much-needed public hospital.

According to Professor Richard Jones, head of the Spinal Unit at Prince 
Henry, the area is now "grossly under-resourced".

Prince Henry Hospital has been fighting over many years against its piece-
by-piece downgrading from a fully functioning hospital to its current role 
as a kind of "back-up" facility to the nearby Prince of Wales Hospital.

Throughout the years of struggle by the local Friends of Prince Henry 
Hospital action group, governments, Liberal and Labor, have promised that 
their intention is not to close the hospital.

Mr Carr still maintains that the hospital will not be closed. His press 
statement says the hospital will provide a "combination of the highest 
quality health care, aged care and rehabilitation services" and it will be 
"a centre of excellence". However, the development proposal, is seen by 
many as the final death-knell for the hospital.

One hospital worker told The Guardian that when he started working 
at Prince Henry it was a fully functioning hospital, but now he said, it 
was basically just a re-habilitation centre and a spinal unit after most 
other services had been transferred to the Prince of Wales.

He said Ward 6 still provided rehabilitation for strokes and serious car 
accidents and had a rehab unit equipped with a gym and exercise pool. (The 
hospital has been promised a new swimming pool for the last 10 years, but 
nothing has come of it.)

Ward 1 still operates as a spinal unit, Ward 2 has been turned into a 
museum about the hospital, and Ward 4 is open one day a week for dialysis 
treatment. Ward 5 is a neurology theatre, but this is expected to close in 
March and be moved to Prince of Wales.

The development plans list a few minimal health services that will be 
provided at Prince Henry: an Aboriginal health care and training facility 
and aged care accommodation.

They also mention "a new Graduate School of Management", but The 
Guardian's enquiries to the office of the State Minister for Health, Dr 
Andrew Refshauge, were unable to determine if this was a health service or 
a school of business management.

The downgrading of the hospital has paved the way for the theft of its land 
for the purpose of private profit.

The plans are on public display at the hospital and at Randwick Council.