In my previous posting I noted the negative response from the general practitioners in the Blue Mountains in regard to their non-representation on the Board of the Nepean-Blue Mountains Local Health Network. Here is an abbreviated part of what they had to say:
Katoomba out in cold on hospital board: specialist
BY SHANE DESIATNIK
Blue Mountains Gazette
23 Mar, 2011 09:55 AM "Australian Medical Association (AMA) Blue Mountains district representative Dr John England has raised questions over the makeup of the Nepean/Blue Mountains Local Hospital Network board (LHN) established in January, claiming it is virtually a Nepean Hospital establishment.
“The consensus at the meeting was that we don’t know anyone [on the Nepean/Blue Mountains LHN board] except Dr James Bramley, who is based at Nepean Hospital but does relief and occasional weekend work at Katoomba Hospital,” Dr England said.
“Nobody really represents Blue Mountains hospitals [on the board] — that is the truth. “You know the saying, the big dog eats all the food.
“We hope that in the future there will be actually people who work full-time at Katoomba Hospital appointed to the board.
“But what I really think is needed is that doctors appointed to Nepean Hospital should have to work at least one day per fortnight at Katoomba Hospital as part of their contracts.” These statements made me interested to find out something about the SWSLHN Board members and just what they had in the way of qualification to be able to manage the delivery of health services from Fairfield to Bowral.
Here is the published list for the SWSLHN: Professor Phillip Harris AM (Chair); Mr Timothy Bryan; Ms Carolyn Burlew; Ms Christine Carriage; Professor Brad Frankum; Dr Kathryn Gibson; Mr Mark Johnson; Professor Margot Kearns; Dr Jens Kilian; Ms Debbie Roberts; and Professor Jeremy Wilson.
With the magic of Google it is simply amazing what one can find out about people!
Professor Phillip Harris is, among other appointments, Head of Cardiology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (not in the SWSLHN);
Mr Timothy Bryan is a bit of a mystery as it appears he hasn't done much in his life, yet - though there was a convict with the same name who was given his ticket-of-leave in the Colony of NSW at Mudgee on 30th of April 1850!
Ms Carolyn Burlew is the Vice President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (NSW Division) and has an impressive pedigree of working for the NSW Government and its various Departments. Ms Burlew currently has another 7 positions on various Boards and other ventures in addition to her place on the SWSLHN Board;
Ms Christine Carriage is an Indigenous Project Officer and has a career in helping to improve the health of Aboriginal communities through the "Close the Gap" program;
Professor Brad Frankum is Professor of Clinical Education at the University of Western Sydney's Medical School and also is a specialist in the field of immunology. He has been used in the Macarthur area to inspire school students to consider a career in medicine and he is sufficiently a realist to state: that there is a real battle approaching with the access to, and distribution of, health care. At the Macarthur Anglican School he noted: "Western Sydney gets ripped off with health services". Well, I just hope that Brad Frankum can set his sights upon the more rural parts of the SWSLHN when he begins to argue for more health resources.
Dr Kathryn Gibson (not to be confused with Dr Katherine Gibson of the UWS) is the Head of the Rheumatology/Immunology Unit of the Liverpool Hospital as well as being an Associate Professor in the Medical School.
Mr Mark Johnson could be the same Mark Johnson (AO) who, until July 2008 was the Deputy Chairman of the Maquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG), which in 2007 made a loss of $1.7 billion. Nevertheless, he does have some powerful credentials in his pedigree with a law degree (Melb) and an MBA from Harvard. It has been stated that he is one of the most widely respected, accomplished, and experienced corporate advisers in Australia. Gee! I hope I got the right guy here! If I have, then I imagine that Mr Mark Johnson AO will be distracted by being on the Board of Westfield and the 3 other Advisory Boards for the Australian Government.
Professor Margot Kearns is Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of Nursing at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney which had its first graduating class in December 2008. The photos of her seem to indicate a maternal and caring person. Hopefully, Professor Kearns will be cognizant of the needs of the nursing staff in the more remote and rural areas of the SWSLHN.
Dr Jens Guenter Kilian is the Director of Cardiology at Bankstown Hospital and also Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and has qualifications from there in medicine and surgery. Dr Kilian obtained his degrees in 1998 and has been working as a staff specialist in cardiology since October 2006.
Ms Debbie Roberts is the CEO of Youth Solutions, a Macarthur-based NGO which, obviously enough, seeks to improve the health and well-being of young people in the Macarthur area. However, I do know that Youth Solutions has also taken an interest in what happens to the youth of the Southern Highlands.
Professor Jeremy Wilson graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1974. He specialised in Gastroenterology at Concord and Prince of Wales hospitals. At the latter he tinkered a little with drug and alcohol services and it was here that he aspired to create the first of his Very Big Buildings to celebrate his work. Unfortunately, he didn't get his way and so he took off to America with his bat and ball, to undertake research as a Visiting Fellow at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Upon his return to Sydney he was appointed as a Conjoint Senior Lecturer of School of Community Medicine at the UNSW and became Associate Professor of Medicine in 1997. Following a surge of appointments to Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospitals and the newly established SWS Clinical School he became Professor and Director of Medicine at Liverpool Hospital. While Professor Wilson is a renowned pancreatologist, he is more renowned in the old SSWAHS as the lead developer of "The Way Forward" document in which the SSWAHS divided itself into divisions of clinical streams. He was renowned for being one of the most senior SSWAHS to completely forget about Bowral Hospital and the community health services in the Southern Highlands. At least, out of that debacle he did manage to wrangle another of his Very Big Buildings at Liverpool Hospital.
So what does this little expose tell us? Well we appear to be no better off in the SWSLHN than our friends up in the Blue Mountains.
No representation by the significant health care providers in the community - the general practitioners. No real health consumers representing the mainstream community members. No real opportunity to engage in public discussion or consultation, with the bulk of the Board consisting of academics and senior clinicians who have mixed roles. Those who are not clinicians or academics are equally tasked with multiple positions in multiple organisations.
Somehow this whole exercise of appointing a Board to govern the activities of a Local Health Network seems to be a cynical exercise in developing a framework structure for a hollow organisation. Maybe returning to the autonomy of a Board for a local hospital will be the only way local health services will get the resources and funding they need. Is the current trend just another way for the senior specialists getting the machines that go "ping" at the expense of the basic clinical and health needs of the communities the health service is meant to serve?
