Afeasibility study is being undertaken to determine if a radiation treatment centre will be established in the Limestone Coast.
The Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) recently informed the Radiation Treatment Limestone Coast Working Party of the State Government plan to spend $80,000 on the study.
Radiation Treatment Limestone Coast Working Party chair Lachlan Haynes said although the feasibility study sounded positive, the party was apprehensive.
“While we welcome it, we want the undertaking from them they will not spend the $4.3m that is on the table at the moment until the study at least comes back,” he said.
“While we celebrate the state government taking enough interest to do a feasibility study, we certainly do not want to see too much time and money wasted on a feasibility study.
“We want to see real action, we want to see acknowledgement of all the names on the petition, that is the overwhelming number of people in the Limestone Coast wanting radiation therapy.
“Let’s acknowledge we have got $4.3m on the table, we also have a massive groundswell of people singing our petition.”
Member for Barker Tony Pasin, a passionate advocate for the radiation treatment centre, voiced concerns about the feasibility study.
“While a feasibility study might sound great in theory, I have been around politics long enough to read between the lines,” Mr Pasin said.
“I have seen plenty of feasibility studies commissioned for the sole purpose of ending any prospect for success a particular proposed may have.
“I do not want to see time and money wasted on a feasibility study to tell the State Government what they want to hear.
“The $4.3m of federal funding is on the table now but it is unlikely to remain available and without it, radiation treatment in the region is simply unviable.”
Mr Haynes believed the study did not need to be done and said the party did not necessarily see it as a positive or a way forward.
“We have got the petition numbers, all those signatures, we have got the groundswell of support from the Limestone Coast, and we have got the federal money on the table, so why is the state government almost playing games?” Mr Haynes said.
“While we acknowledge the feasibility study is perhaps a positive step in some regard, we definitely do not want time and money wasted on a feasibility study if it just prolongs the situation.
“We think it is time to fast-track as much as we can on the feasibility study, because people’s lives and livelihoods are being affected in the meantime.”
The LCLHN has been contacted for comment.
