It was with some delight that I found that the organisational problems we are experiencing in the Southern Highlands have resonated with the GPs in the Bankstown Division of General Practice, a Division which I mentioned as being more progressive and demonstrating advocacy for health consumers than is evident in their silent counterparts in the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice.
In my previous posts I remarked on the different stance the Bankstown coalition of GPs and Divisions has presented to NSW Health (and to the Federal Government) for more manageable sized Medicare Locals which can adopt and provide health resources and programs for the health consumers within their target areas. This was in marked contrast to our own Division which seems to want to hold on to their autonomy as a "branch" of the Macarthur Division of General Practice. Does this mean that the Southern Highlands "Branch" retains the inept Board that we currently have? If so, it seems that there have to be questions asked as to how the current Chief Executive of the Southern Highlands Division can be retained when he lacks the confidence of many of the GP members of the current Division.
Yes, the Tweeter on Twitter who captioned my last blogs as "Southern Dis-Comfort" got it perfectly correct: the current structure of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice is giving us health consumers very little comfort. Looking at the strategies which have been driven by Dr Warwick Ruscoe and the Board they seem remarkably self-serving and for the purpose of self-aggrandisement, rather than for the benefit of the local community.
When push came to shove in the promotion of improved surgical theatre lists, and in the improvement for local treatment of renal disease, and the refurbishment of the Children's Ward at Bowral Hospital - the Board of the Division has been stoic in their silence and always absent in their presence. When the SSWAHS barricades needed to be charged it was left to the community's aged and the infirm and just one or two specialist medicos to lead the way. A Medicare Local that does not need to worry about biting the hand that feeds it would be of benefit to any community, none more so than the community in the Southern Highlands.
