Well, now we have it - the news that Bowral and the Southern Highlands is back in the clutches of the same crew who have already caused us much grief over the past five years - the SSWAHS Executive.
The Local Health Networks have been announced. The likelihood that there will be little change made at the top levels of the current SSWAHS Executive except for some sideways movement. Socrates, in consulting with the Delphi Oracles, predicts that Mike Wallace current CEO will be given the plum job of managing one of the three Clinical Support Clusters. This will allow his current Deputy, Jan Whalan, to be given the position of the Chief Executive Officer of the rebirthed SSWAHS.
Will anything change? No! Most likely Ms Whalan will be closely following the party line of her mentor Mr Wallace and continue to move the essential services needed by the residents of the Southern Highlands towards Liverpool and Campbelltown Hospitals. There has been no show or recognition by Ms Whalan in the past, since the time she joined Mike Wallace, that she has any understanding of what are the health needs of the Southern Highlanders.
Socrates has no recollection of Ms Whalan ever visiting or engaging in any community forum about what even the most basic services are needed for our population. To use the phrase that typifies any big conglomerate - Ms Whalan seems to be focused on the big end of the SSWAHS empire.
What can we expect from these changes? After all, both the Premier and the Minister have assured all that the Local Health Networks will have representation from clinicians, and community members. It would appear to Socrates that those clinicians who want machines that go "ping" or new buildings to house them will be already be putting their names forward for the few places on these tokenistic committees. The "community members" will be placed in the invidious situation of having to compete with other communities for the health resources that will be on offer. I can imagine that community members on these Committees, in Liverpool or Campbelltown, will be convinced by Ms Whalan and her Executive that the people in the Southern Highlands can travel to Campbelltown and Liverpool hospitals if they have any need for clinical help or treatment.
Bowral health services and the Southern Highlands will continue to be seen as the rural outpost of the metropolitan SSWAHS, serviced by the dedicated band of local clinicians and supported by the local community. Socrates has the vision of, and similarity to, the fabled "lost patrol". We, in the Southern Highlands are destined to be just wandering round and around, somehow never connecting with the rest of the rebirthed SSWAHS.
