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New Year to all! Merry Christmas & happy Season’s Greetings Pages 15-21
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
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MAREEBA and Atherton will be spoilt for choice this Friday night as the towns light up for Christmas shopping. Dozens of shops in the CBD will stay open past 5pm in a bid to entice residents to buy their gifts, with Pam Cater, Tamia Morrison, Annette Morrison, Stacey Shaw and Kim Johnson (pictured) hoping to see a few customers come their way in Mareeba. The night will also feature the annual Christmas Night Markets at the Mareeba Post Office Centre. Full Story – Page 2
Bob Katter threatens to go to war over Mareeba Hospital
‘I will fight this’ By Michael Serenc
KENNEDY MP Bob Katter fears people “will die in a waiting room” if health services are cut to Mareeba Hospital. Mr Katter has threatened to go to war with the State Government if it doesn’t make up a shortfall of about $2 million in funding to the hospital when the existing Federal Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreement runs out next
October. The threat comes after Mareeba Shire Council wrote to Health Minister Cameron Dick earlier this month, demanding he and Department of Health director-general Michael Walsh meet with Mayor Tom Gilmore to address concerns over future funding for the hospital. Mareeba’s population has reached a level where it will no longer qualify for the specific COAG funding it has been receiving.
Although the funding represents less than six per cent of the total funding required to operate the hospital in this financial year, Mareeba currently has an exemption which provides $2 million to fund primary community services to rural and remote areas. One of those services is outpatient services, which makes traditional GP services available at the hospital provided for free under the Medicare Benefits Schedule. But if no money is forthcoming to make up the
s a m t s i r h C y r r e M & Happy New Year!
$2 million shortfall, outpatient services may be one of those cut at the hospital, forcing their patients to use the town’s already stretched private medical practices. “We’ve got a very high percentage of poor people in Mareeba who would then be forced to pay the gap between bulk billing and what the doctor charges,” Mr Katter said.
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