Your say: week beginning December 1

Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.

Monday December 1

Rural healthcare

“I worked in healthcare in Central West NSW from 1980 to 2016. During the earlier decades, there was a strong network among rural procedural doctors with colleagues in metropolitan hospitals. This afforded rapid phone discussion with distant specialists over problems, particularly cancer care and obstetric complications, leading to rapid treatment either locally or by ready transfer. Over the decades, the development of Area Health Authorities (AHA) often cut rural hospitals off from metropolitan hospitals. The previous sense of ‘ownership’ for the outcomes in rural hospitals – aligned to a parent metropolitan hospital – was broken and replaced with non-clinical, bureaucratic financial associations bearing little foundation in clinical practice. The huge developments in communication should allow ready return to the parent/metropolitan hospital, rural hospital paradigm with mutual clinical advantages and thus a return to improved patient outcomes.”

Chris Halloway, retired obstetrician and gynaecologist

Melbourne’s transport woes

“The article on the Melbourne Metro Tunnel got me thinking about why more people don’t use it. I visit friends in Melbourne from time to time and the transport situation from the airport is diabolical. Taxis/Ubers are usually over $65 and not always easy to get. When will the trains reach Tullamarine? Oh, and the signage at the airport is among the worst in the world. But oh, I do love Melbourne.”

Ilene

Tuesday December 2

First-hand experience

“The article on youth crime is very inadequate. Regional statistics are not included. I do not know if they are available but using state-wide stats for Queensland, for instance, is woefully inadequate. Everyone who lives in Far North Queensland knows that youth crime has increased. People have increased their home security because the number of house thefts has increased significantly. People who left their gates open now have large chains around the gate and cameras attached. This article adds to the frustration of people in Far North Queensland. The lack of understanding of people living elsewhere is huge.”

Denise Burns

Legal cost

“I am a long-time reader of The Conversation, however Michelle Grattan’s recent article prompted this response, which is my first entree in the world of ‘commentary’. There have been many followers of the ongoing litigation erroneously called the ‘Higgins affair’ (erroneous because the title once again serves to traumatise a young woman who was the victim of an alleged rape). Grattan suggests Senator Reynolds and her (then) chief of staff, Fiona Brown, have been treated unfairly. Undeniably, this has been a long story of trauma, and one which has adversely affected many, including the Senator and her chief of staff and not least the initial victim. It is a story where politics should be excluded. However, that is enormously difficult to do when Senator Reynolds continues her litigation, effectively seeking to bankrupt the victim of the alleged rape who was a young staffer under her care at the time of the alleged rape. For reasons of balance alone, it would have been helpful if Grattan had included this element in her story. Achieving balance in journalism requires ethical judgments, particularly where politics is involved.”

Sue Millbank