SSWAHS and its solution for mental health patients in their care

Is this the plan for the future? SSWAHS outsourcing its clinical responsibilities to general practitioners who might be unable to deliver the basic medical skills to patients in the community. While asking for expressions of interest will the SSWAHS Executive bother to check whether the general practitioners responding to this proposal have the skills to provide the necessary clinical skills to those for who they are being made responsible.

Dr Teresa Anderson, SSWAHS Director of Clinical Operations, wrote to the CEO of the Central Sydney GP Network, Dr Michael Moore, on 20 August, 2010 to request expressions of interest from their organisation, or individual general practitioners and/or their practices. The focus of the EOI is to provide medical services to patients with mental illnesses who attend the SSWAHS community health centres.

SSWAHS cites the current situation they have at Croydon and Redfern Community Health Centres. It would appear that they have plans to eventually roll this program out for all their SSWAHS Community Health Centres including, presumably, the Bowral Community Health Centre.

Socrates suggests that what SSWAHS Executive is opting to do is to establish their existing Community Health Centres as the sort of "Super Clinics" which have been touted by the Federal Government and, mainly, by the various Divisions of General Practice. What will be the outcome one wonders? Will our Community Health Centre become the "Super Clinic" which has been sought by the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice? Will the Bowral Community Health Centre be handed over to Dr Warwick Ruscoe and Dr Vince Roche and the rest of the Board of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice?

And what will be the outcome for the staff of the Community Health Centre who are employed by SSWAHS? Will this new method of handing over the clinical responsibility to local general practitioners mean that SSWAHS will be downsizing its staff numbers in order to satisfy those who want to replace staff with machines the go "ping"!

Finally, what about the patients with a mental illness, don't they also have the right like all of us to choose the doctor to which they go to seek their continuing treatment? If they are forced to go to a doctor chosen by SSWAHS do they really have a choice?

As for the GPs in the Southern Highlands, how do they feel about the Southern Highlands Division or SSWAHS selecting a general practitioner to take away their patients from their practices. If they have developed a good rapport with their patients do they really want to hand over the clinical responsibility of their patients to someone who may, or may not, have the same level of skills and empathy as they have.