The money from the sale of our electricity assets is all committed to Sydney and the $120 million promised only gives us half a hospital and the imminent closure of Bourke Street leaves us nowhere.

I am now beginning to believe Ms Goward that she doesn’t know anything and no one is telling her anything. How else could you explain this mess?

I respond to the comments of Vicki Toole, Markey McCool and Maynard Robinson in Wednesday’s paper. (Oct 19)

May I agree that my own experience with Goulburn Base Hospital has been similar. My family has been cared for: broken hips, broken legs, two babies and more. If the Goulburn Health Hub manages to achieve staff satisfaction levels similar to our hospital, I’d be a happy man.

In 2001, my daughter’s life was saved after her brain was coming out of her forehead as a result of a car accident.  So bad was the accident that she was reported as dead. Within the “magic hour” she was taken to the Base. Her life was saved by our wonderful and world class medical emergency team.  I owe the Goulburn Base Hospital and their staff.

However, we cannot deny that more and more we see our residents travel to Bowral or Canberra for their medical services to be met. The facilities at the Base don’t entice all patients nor do we have a huge number of specialists. We need to change this.

Whether it’s public or private, my only position is that we need a new hospital not a band-aid job. My self-interest is for the health industry in Goulburn to grow not contract. Growth begets growth and with it opportunity.

I attended the vigorous debate at Politics in the Pub around the Goulburn hospital privatisation. It became clear to me that the position of our project, Goulburn Health Hub, is hugely misunderstood. 

We are trying to develop a medical precinct for the residents of Goulburn. We have started with a state-of-the-art integrated medical centre and planning is underway for the day surgery, as the next phase.

We had discussions with a developer and a health operator about forming a consortium that would propose a greenfield site for the new hospital. However, it is looking less and less likely that such a proposal will be considered by Health Infrastructure NSW.

It was mis-stated in a Goulburn Post article that we had been in secret discussions with the government prior to the announcement of the public private partnership. All I can say is, I wish we were so important!

Over the last three years, I have spoken to many specialists. It has been reaffirmed to me many times over that key barriers to their availability to Goulburn are the facilities at the Base and the ability to do a combination of both public and private work. Attracting permanent specialists is key to the success of the hospital. 

Our interest is in the growth of the health industry in Goulburn and the development of our site for health purposes. If not the new hospital, there is no shortage of areas to expand - physical rehab, acute aged care, oncology to name but a few.

However, the linchpin of all these health facilities is the hospital - so we, like every resident of Goulburn, want a vibrant, modern and active hospital that could become a focal point for Southern NSW.