"NSW Health bureaucrats and the Parliamentary Secretary for Health have recently written to residents to advise they “regretted” the public might have been misled by recent reports suggesting services would be downgraded.
Each of these letters listed a variety of upgrades and improvements at the hospital.
They each had almost identical wording, despite being signed by different people.
A key claim of these letters was that “many patients have been happy to be referred to other hospitals”.
However, despite repeated requests, SSWAHS has been unable to refer any of these patients to the News to confirm those claims.
Health service short on words
In response to five detailed and specific questions about Mr Illek’s meeting with Denis Thomas, the News received the following two-sentence statement from SSWAHS.
“Bowral Hospital management regularly consults with the local community to receive their feedback on local health services.
“Yesterday’s (Monday) meeting was constructive.”
This information, as reported recently in the Southern Highland News and in the YourTimes monthly, is simply the usual spin put out by the media unit of SSWAHS. Anything that might now go wrong with the lines of communication will, no doubt, be dumped at the door of Denis Thomas, the hardworking General Manager of the Bowral Hospital outpost of the SSWAHS Empire.
Should we be surprised that letters from different people within NSW Health and SSWAHS should be so word perfect with just the names of signatories changed? Write a letter to the Minister or the Minister assisting the Health Minister and you can expect it to be bumped down to a lesser bureaucrat further down the food chain in the SSWAHS for a response that the Minister or some more senior bureaucrat can sign and send.
But don't hold your breath while waiting for something meaningful to come back in response. I know of one instance where a letter complaining about certain health services in the Highlands was sent to the NSW Health Ministers in September 2009 which went without even an acknowledgment to the correspondent. A reminder letter with copies of the earlier letters was again sent in April 2010 with the same result. Again, no response to the current date. The same letters sent to the Director General of Health and the CEO of SSWAHS generated a cursory note from the CEO of SSWAHS stating that a senior investigation officer of the Area would be following up the complaints.
That was on 28th November 2009 and, to date, there has not been any contact from that nominated person to the complainant. One could suggest that before we should expect the opening of the lines of communication between the community and Bowral Hospital we should, at least, expect to see some evidence of the lines of communication opening from the people in SSWAHS who have been so quick to reassure our community that communication lines at Bowral are now open.
I for one choose to remain unconvinced, by the evidence above, that any senior bureaucrat or executive member of SSWAHS is even slightly interested in the health of the Highlanders.
