The Central Highlands community, the Central Highlands Council and the Medical Services Special Committee of the Central Highlands Council Committee are continuing to let the Health Department know that the downgrading of the Hospital is not acceptable, and that the community is insisting on proper consultation about the future of the Hospital.
The main reasons for the downgrading of the Hospital given by the Department and the politicians are based on incorrect assumptions and inaccurate data which have resulted in inappropriate conclusions and proposals which are not acceptable for this rural community. All this was done without the community being consulted about changes to the Hospital before the Health Plan was published in May this year.
The Department admitted in Parliament last month that the budget figures for the Hospital were not correct in the Health Plan. The $300,000 overrun is now only $106,000. On this basis, the Hospital now has one of the lowest per bed rates in the State.
Despite recent comments and corrections, there is still nothing from the Department which justifies the proposed changes. These proposals include in the removal of the four sub-acute beds and the six residential aged care beds from the Hospital; the Hospital is intended to be downgraded to a “nursing clinic”. The removal of these beds and the aged residents at the Hospital is being strongly resisted by the residents, their families, the Hospital Committee and the community generally. The legal requirements of the Commonwealth Aged Care Act may not have been heeded by the Department in its plans to change our aged care services at the Hospital.
The Health Department has released a proposed “Services Model” for the Hospital (see separate flyer). The main facility change in this “Model” is the construction of a new day care area at the Hospital. This would operate only two days a week. It would be an extremely expensive option – particularly when Ash Cottage is already seeking Federal funds for a similar facility to be run at the Country Club. Although in an early stage, this “Model” retains a number of services which were originally planned to be removed in the downgrading of the Hospital. These include retaining palliative care, some emergency support and overnight respite. Although the “Service Model” has no overall benefits to the community and may cost even more to run that the current Hospital, it seems that the community’s opposition to the Health Plan is bearing fruit.
Nurses in the northwest of the State are considering strike action against the Health Plan. That action could spread throughout the State. The AMA has now expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of the Health Plan. Communities in other parts of the State are also continuing the fight against the implementation of the Health Plan.
Over the last few weeks your Committee has been doing the following:
Freedom of Information requests have been lodged with the Department seeking details of the Hospital budget, staffing, whether consultations have taken place with the Australian Government about any intended changes to the residential care beds at the Hospital, details of the levels of care provided over the last two years, and other information which is not in the Health Plan, and still has not been given to the community. See separate sheet for details.
All of the community’s petitions have been tabled in Parliament.
The “Black Hole” ad has been prepared (see separate sheet).
A “Questions and Answers” is being prepared which sets out the “reasons” given by the Department for the downgrading of the Hospital - and the real facts. This will be copied and made available in the townships and villages around the Central Highlands and on the Council’s website and the Go Highlands website when finished.
The Committee has been present at various liaison presentations with Department staff who still will not consult with the community about the Health Plan.
The Committee has prepared a list of services promised at the Hospital under the Health Plan. Virtually of these are already present in Ouse. This has been tabled in Parliament (see separate sheet).
You will have heard the news about the Commonwealth’s intervention in the Mersey Hospital. This should give the Health Department something to think about when communities indicate their outrage about not being consulted before medical facilities are downgraded. Whether the Department takes any lessons from this is still unknown.
However, we need to keep the pressure on the Department to consult with the community about any changes. We know what is required for the Hospital – improvements which capitalise on the potential to use and expand the existing services, to introduce new initiatives by the Department in a cost-effective way and to retain the core of our Hospital which are the aged care beds, the sub-acute facilities and our GP. All of these are under threat by the Health Department.
The politicians responsible for the Health Plan still refuse to meet with the public or the Committee to consider the community’s ideas on how to improve the Hospital. Until they do, this fight will certainly continue!
Prepared by the Medical Services Special Committee of the Central Highlands Council on behalf of the community of the Central Highlands, 3rd August 2007.