Tight-knit mining community continues fight for hospital
AFTER Tuesday's huge show of support for the Moura hospital there is still a glimmer of hope for the community.
Many residents are continuing the fight and Debbie Elliott is one of those who is willing to give it her "damndest''.
"When things happen everyone kind of groups together," she said.
"I think having those three (mining) disasters have made the community very tight. The hospital is the heart of the community."
She met with several other stakeholders yesterday to recap their goals for next Thursday's meeting.
"What we're fighting for is to retain the hospital in its current building providing 24/7 care," Mrs Elliott said.
"To the best of our knowledge - we've only had limited information available as we haven't had consultation - the hospital as we know it could change quite dramatically. The 24/7 care that is available would become a nurse on call 24/7."
She said the town's mining industry was a big factor.
"The frightening things with that are if there's an accident," she said. "There's many people that have been stabilised, then flown out and there's loads of people talking about how their lives have been saved because of the hospital.
"We just can't believe it because we've got 24/7 industry. If something blows up there's not usually just one casualty, there's often the chance of multiple casualties."
She said extra stress would be put on the ambulance, which would then need to be improved, and helicopter transport.
"Biloela would be the next hospital that's large," Mrs Elliott said. "There's a hospital at Theodore but they wouldn't have a lot of extra room either. "
See Friday's Rural Weekly CQ for more.
