Funny because the next couple of tiers of government obviously believe it’s okay to ride roughshod over everyone and everything, making decisions for us – because, presumably, we are incapable of providing useful input.

Regional residents have been worrying for months about the content of the State Labor Government’s Country Health Plan.

The details have been kept under wraps until last week when they popped up after the new budget was announced.

It’s lovely to think that Clare will keep its facilities, and even have some of them improved and increased, but the overall picture is one of doom for rural communities.

With 43 out of 66 regional hospitals Statewide to lose or have their acute services seriously downgraded, it’s not a pretty thought.

We know the Royal Adelaide Hospital is under intense stress – and we all have anecdotes of people we know (or ourselves) waiting for hours in corridors or on hard chairs to be attended to by overworked staff.

So why on earth would the Government put us in a position where people living in rural areas are more likely to travel to Adelaide for attention, because it will be closer than their nearest country hub?

For emergency cases it will put more stress on the under-volunteered ambulance service, with more patients presumably having to race a hundred kilometres or more to have a baby, fix an appendix, treat a heart attack.

Once a town loses its hospital it is gone forever – and with it jobs, families, prosperity and hope.

It seems only our State Labor Government doesn’t see how tough people are doing it in rural towns.

No public transport, high fuel costs, high cost of living, and now an even higher cost to keep healthy.