THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 30 #22 Wednesday, November 11, 2015
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Byron to get more lighting
An emporium of wearables
This Gustav Klimt-inspired design entitled Woman in Gold by Oceana Piccone and Gemma Brooks was judged to be the overall winner of this year’s Wearable Arts performance at the Shearwater school. This year’s theme was the Emporium of Dreams. Photo Jeff Dawson
Byron Shire Council has received $50,000 from the NSW government to light up crime hotspots in the Bay’s CBD in an effort to make the area safer at night. The money comes on top of federal funding for lighting and CCTV cameras in other parts of the town, which are currently in the process of being installed. The new lighting will extend to Fletcher Street and laneways around Jonson and Lawson streets. Despite a range of projects to reduce alcohol-related violence in Byron Bay, including a late-night bus to get revellers home safely and a campaign to encourage safe partying, the rate of assaults (non-domestic violence) in the town has not significantly declined over the past five years. Justice and police minister Troy Grant (Nationals) said of the Safer Community Compact grant program: ‘Anyone who causes trouble in the CBD will be more visible, which will help ensure they are held to account.’
Byron Central Hospital to open without operating theatre Chris Dobney
A community meeting at Byron at Byron resort heard last Wednesday that while construction of Byron Central Hospital will come in on time and within budget, an operating theatre will not be part of the initial facilities and could be up to five years coming, Northern NSW Local Health District CEO Chris Crawford said NSW Health had again examined the possibility of a public operating theatre but that ‘modelling found there would only be demand for one to 1.5 days a week’.
He said that the department had since ‘sounded out’ private interest and would be looking to commence an Expressions of Interest process ‘in the next couple of months’. Mr Crawford said that if and when the operating theatre is built, public patients would be treated there at the government’s expense.
Cost approx $6–8m The operating theatre would cost around $6-8 million for a private contractor to build, he said. But even if it weren’t built in the short term, the groundwork would be laid for it to
be added in the future. Mr Crawford also admitted that the health district was examining other public/private partnership possibilities but had ruled out onsite GP and/or dentist rooms. He did reveal that the government was looking at a ‘hybrid’ public/private model for medical imaging, similar to a model that already exists at Tweed and Murwillumbah hospitals. But Mr Crawford’s comments drew the ire of local Health Services Union boss Jonathan Millman, who said from the audience the Tweed model had ‘failed’ and that as a result
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of the private sector paying staff less, medical imaging at Tweed ‘effectively runs from nine to five, Monday to Friday’. Meanwhile, planning and performance officer for NNSW LHD, Maureen Lane, told the meeting that in the next fortnight a workforce plan will be unveiled. Ms Lane said a ‘minimal’ number of staff would ‘not be able to fit into the new design’, while emphasising that there would be a ‘number of new positions required including mental health professionals and emergency department continued on page 2
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