SSWAHS = SWSLHN + SLHN and the Medicare Locals - 28

GP-type patient burden on EDs is overestimated

• By Gemma Collins on 12 April 2011
• 2 comments

"The Federal government has overestimated the burden of ‘GP-type’ patients on emergency departments which has led to “misguided” strategies including GP super clinics that are “doomed to fail”, according to doctors.

"Five senior emergency specialists have accused the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare of using a “flawed” method to calculate the number of patients in EDs who potentially require only GP services.

"The AIHW reported that 41% of patients at EDs were potentially GP cases last year.

"But in an editorial published in the Emergency Medicine Australasia, (see link), the specialists say the true figure is about 15%.

"And the inaccurate estimate has led to “unhelpful strategies” to reduce ED overcrowding, the authors say, including the $650 million GP Super Clinics, after-hours general practices being located close to EDs, and after-hours telephone consultations that are planned for Medicare Locals.

“Patients attend EDs for multiple reasons and the literature clearly shows that after-hours general practice clinics, super clinics and polyclinics fill a gap in medical services, but do not take any pressure off EDs,” they say.

"According to the editorial, the definition used by the AIHW was “made up” by NSW Department of Health Consultants, without significant clinical input.

"And it is based on GP cases being category 4 and 5 patients attending EDs, who are not admitted or conveyed to the ED by ambulance or police.

"But the triage category reflects urgency, not complexity, the authors say, and the real problem lies in the inability to move admitted patients to the ward in a timely manner, and which causes overcrowding and long waiting times."

Comments:

1.
So what has Minister Roxon have to say? Ignoring the issues as usual I see. Glad to see my tax payer dollars not at work!

John Jackson | 12 April 2011 at 19:24

2.
Our local ED medical director has been saying this for years - that 'GP style' patients are not a significant burden on the ED. This is despite the fact that the north of Tasmania has had a critical GP shortage for years - I must conclude that those of us who are there are doing a good job in limiting patients going to the ED. It must also be remembered that 'GP style' patients when presenting to the ED are easy work for the hospital. The problem is often relatively simple and, most importantly, they can be sent home not requiring an inpatient bed to see their GP for follow-up. So not only are they limited in number (15% not 41%), the ED resources that such patients consume are low. The critical issue for our ED as with others is 'Bed Block'. Successive governments have failed to provide sufficient inpatient beds to allow sick patients to be efficiently transferred out of the Department. It was thus clear to working doctors from the get-go that 'super' and 'nurse-lead' clinics as a solution to ED overcrowding were doomed to fail all at massive taxpayer expense.

Dr. Andrew Jackson, Launceston | 12 April 2011 at 15:15

SSWAHS = SWSLHN + SLHN and the Medicare Locals - 10

Another rural-based hospital appears to be having the same concerns as Bowral Hospital, and the Southern Highlands community, about the SWSLHN understanding and recognizing the unique issues faced by a rural District hospital and their community's health needs.

The following article is from the Blue Mountains Gazette and reflects a much more responsive Division of General Practice than the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice under the control of its CEO. At least the Katoomba and Blue Mountains Division used their AMA representative to introduce a forum for their Division's GPs to hear what each of the 2011 election contenders had to say about their health policies. Secondly, they were in a position to advise the candidates what they, the GPs,considered to be the election issues for health.

In the Southern Highlands there has only been stony silence and, as seen in the previous post, absolute refusal on the part of the Division to comment about Medicare Locals and the SWSLHN, generally. As far as Socrates is aware there has been no meeting attended by the general practitioners of the Southern Highlands at which they could be informed of the planned marriage of their Division with that of the Macarthur area. Certainly, the only announced meeting to which the CEO agreed to attend was with a handful of the local psychologists in private practice - and that was done only as a favour to his neighbour!

The Southern Highland News has been scoured for any sort of story or letter relating to the SWS Local Hospital Network (SWSLHN), or the marriage proposed to the Macarthur Division of General Practice for the Medicare Local. Contrast that with the transparency of the Bankstown and the Blue Mountains Divisions of General Practice who have held community and GP membership forums throughout the past eight months to the present time.

Even the Macarthur Division's website has been devoid of the information which could be of interest to its members. It might be deduced from this veil of secrecy that all business associated with their proposed bid for the Medicare Local has been secret Board business at which the interests and contributions of others (including their members) is considered to be without value.

From Socrates own perspective, the proposed union between the Southern Highlands Division and the Macarthur Division of General Practice is doomed to fail. Why is this so, you may ask! Well looking at the two personalities involved, one can't help but note that both are in the business of building empires. Both have notable expansionist aims and both are actively seeking to access the available funding from Canberra to achieve their ambitions.

One only has to look at the website for the Macarthur Division of General Practice to recognise that this so-called not-for-profit organisation designed to support and meet the needs of general practitioners is really a substantial corporation. Look through the list of staffing and their titles at the Division and you will see how corporatist it has become!

On the other hand, our local Division has less such positions but the CEO still runs the business of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice as if it is his own corporation. The Board, in the meantime, is a tokenistic group who acquiesce to every suggestion made by their CEO. Perhaps the Southern Highlands Division should seriously consider its relationship and true status in the planned nuptials with the Macarthur Division. There will be only one winner to emerge from the marriage - and there won't be much connubial bliss in it for the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice!

Socrates suggests that, before the Marriage Celebrant joins the two in this marriage of inconvenience, and asks if anyone is aware why the two should not be joined in marriage, there is a resounding shout of "yes" from the local the communities of the Southern Highlands and the Macarthur area. Let us join together to put a stop to this obscenity.


"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.

"Dr England, a Katoomba Hospital-based specialist with decades of experience, made the comment to the Gazette after attending a closed meet the candidates session in Katoomba on March 16 hosted by the AMA.

“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.

“Certainly the make-up of the LHN board and the topic of transport and access to hospital services in the region were the issues mostly talked about at the meeting.”

“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.”

NSW AMA president Dr Andrew Steiner said last Wednesday’s candidate’s forum was the first of its kind held by the AMA in the Blue Mountains prior to a state election.

"I’m impressed by the attendance by local doctors and Blue Mountains GP Network members,” Dr Steiner said.

“The AMA has a 10-point priority plan for the election but the three main components are the need to address access block in major teaching hospitals, create enough positions for interns and doctors in training and involve clinicians in decision-making.”

SSWAHS = SWSLHN + SLHN and the NSW State Election - 1

It looks as though the owner of that smiling face on the election posters popping up around the Southern Highlands is not prepared to commit herself, her Party or their proposed health policy to the people of the Southern Highlands. Here is her comment to a forum held at the Moss Vale TAFE on Monday February 21st and reported in the SHN by Ben McLellan today:

Goulburn Liberal MP Pru Goward could only point to her party's strategic land use policy, which she claims will stop mining in the Highlands, as the only real indication the electorate is on the Coalition's radar.

The opposition is pledging money for hospitals in marginal seats like Tamworth and Dubbo plus $133 million for Illawarra hospitals but not a single cent to improve waiting times or facilities at Bowral Hospital.

Ms Goward said mining not health was the main priority of the electorate.

"I think we have delivered a very good coal mining policy and my impression is that was the number one issue of concern here," she said.

"When it comes to Bowral Hospital there is a huge list of hospitals more run down than ours and I have to accept and Bowral has to accept that."

She said the Coalition's promise of more nurses would benefit Highlands residents.

"We are going to offer more nurses. A lot of the problem at that hospital (Bowral) is administration, not the building of the hospital itself," she said.

"It's the administration and the maintenance of the hospital. Those things will be addressed."

Oh dear! The electorate of Goulburn has just two public hospitals - Goulburn Base and Bowral Hospital. Neither of these hospitals, to my knowledge, has had any major capital upgrade that can increase their capacity to deal with their growing populations. Bowral Hospital's lifts have recently been fixed, Medical Records and Emergency Department have been given a tweak and a tuck here and there. But the Children's Ward and the Renal Unit are the product of some very serious fundraising work by the local community members, service clubs and businesses.

There have been no additional beds added to Bowral Hospital for more than a decade or two even though our population is not only growing as quickly as anywhere else, but also the number of seniors is increasing at a greater rate than the metropolitan and regional areas in NSW. The 72, or so, beds in the Bowral Hospital are expected to cater for maternity, medical and surgical, young children, aged care, intensive care, day surgery, and mental health patients.

Regional hospitals like Tamworth and Dubbo are important hubs for the medical and surgical needs of their regions. One would not deny that they may have a need for funding. However, there is some hint of pork-barrelling with those two hospitals when one considers that they are spoken of as being "marginal seats". And the Illawarra is already very resource-rich but clearly, the electorates down there could also fall into the category of being "marginal seats".

Does it follow then, that the Liberal Party, and Ms Skinner and Ms Goward, see the electorate of Goulburn as such a "safe seat" that they can afford to ignore what they have been told and what they have seen. Not all that long ago Pru Goward wheeled in Jillian Skinner to rouse the community about the delay in surgical cases. She also conducted a forum on what people wanted to see improved in the local health services. Were those meetings just for show? Where is the additional funding for the surgical waiting list? Where are the additional services for Bowral Hospital that local people are now expected to travel to the northern LHN hospitals to be able to access essential and life-saving health services?

So, what are we in the Southern Highlands being offered? More nurses and a change in administrative practices. Well Ms Goward what incentive is the Liberal Party going to offer those nurses to come to work at Bowral Hospital. The nurses are there - coming out of the universities every year. But given a choice almost every one of them will prefer to go to one of the metropolitan hospitals to work. Why? Because those hospitals have modern facilities and have a comprehensive range of specialties to offer those new graduates the experience they need to complement their academic training and future career path.

Are all the problems evident in Bowral Hospital attributable to poor management. You bet! But not necessarily with the Bowral Hospital management. As has been described many times in previous posts on this blog - Bowral Hospital was (and still is) the boil on the butt of a very large milk cow. The old SSWAHS Executive had a very hard job to remember it was there unless they sat down, or unless the residents in the local community stirred the pot a lot. Money was reluctantly thrown at Bowral Hospital only when there was a significant amount of pain being felt by the SSWAHS Executive.

The current General Manager and his Deputy have done their utmost to deliver the already limited health services required by the community, health services limited by the instruction, lack of funding, and insistence of the Executive of the old SSWAHS. To give them due credit the Bowral Hospital managers have been the most amicable of messengers asked to do the bidding of SSWAHS executives who, if they planned a visit, appeared to have great difficulty even finding Bowral Hospital. This is clearly a case of, Ms Goward, "Don't shoot the messenger".

Perhaps, our current serving Liberal member needs to become more of an advocate for her electorate prior to this March election. Ms Goward, be proactive and insist that the promises made previously to the Southern Highlands community are fully funded in this term of parliament rather than in the "second term" for which you wish us to vote for you.

If you think SSWAHS will honour any commitments to Bowral Hospital, think again!

Balmain Hospital Casualty Changes

CAMPAIGN TO RESTORE 24HR CASUALTY SERVICES AT BALMAIN HOSPITAL

Community Update - December 2009

The Leichhardt community has united together to oppose the cuts to Balmain Hospital Casualty Services that has seen the 24 hour casualty service wound back to 8am to 10pm .

Council representatives, key local organisations and residents were called into a meeting with the Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS) on Monday 27 April 2009 to discuss supposed enhancements to the services at Balmain Hospital. SSWAHS proceeded to tell those present that they were 'expanding' the service and that the service would be open 7 days, 8am to 10pm. Going from a 24 hour service to a 8am to 10pm service doesn’t sound like an expansion of services!

Since then, Leichhardt Council has sought a meeting with the NSW Minister for Health; to discuss these changes but have not received a response. Council has also sought support from the Member for Balmain, Verity Firth MP for this important campaign.

Council has held two public meeting including a public meeting that was held in front of Balmain Hospital. Over 150 people heard many passionate and expert speakers explain the need to retain the 24 hour casualty service, some telling their story of how the Hospital had been there to provide casualty services and treatment in the middle of the night.

As per the resolution adopted by the public meetings, a Citizens Committee has been established to guide the community campaign to restore the 24 hour casualty service. This Committee met on Friday 23 October to discuss the campaign and to develop strategies to overturn the decision. Council and the Committee are now in the process of reviewing current and future local health needs and encouraging the Member for Balmain and Minister for Health to overturn this decision as soon as possible.

If you would like to participate in the Citizens Committee or have any queries regarding the campaign, please contact Council's Media & Public Affairs Officer on (02) 9367 9351.

Cr Jamie Parker

Mayor of Leichhardt

And this was the earlier Mayoral Minute which galvanised the Leichhardt community to action!

MAYORAL MINUTE TO MEETING 28 APRIL 2009

HOURS OF BALMAIN HOSPITAL CASUALTY DEPARTMENT

Balmain Hospital is a crucial part of the Leichhardt municipality and provides excellent care and support for residents. The full hospital service was downgraded in the 1990's and the service was 'replaced' with a 24 hour casualty service in order to blunt the concern of local residents.

Residents may have seen the report in the local newspaper about the rumour that the Balmain hospital 24 hour service was closing. Over the years we have heard this rumour and it has been refuted by Ministers and the Dept of Health and was refuted most recently by the former Premier.

Late last week I received an email requesting I attend Balmain Hospital for a meeting at 10am Monday morning. I agreed to attend but was not told of the purpose of the meeting despite asking. When I attended there were several local representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Cr John Stamolis, Balmain
Association, and Precincts amongst others. There was also a representative from the local GP network as well as staff from the Department of Heath, Balmain hospital and RPA. They proceeded to tell us that they were 'expanding' the service and the service would now be open 7 days 8am to 10pm. In fact they are
cutting the service.

The Area Health Service is proposing to use the money from the cut service to provide more of an existing service. All of the posters and brochures had already been made up none of which actually indicate the service would be cut We were told letters were being sent that day to all local residents. No discussion - no respect for the community or Council.

This was particularly cynical as the local member has said in the local paper that if there was to be any changes there would be consultation before any announcements. Well guess what the announcement was made at 11am one hour after our 'consultation meeting'.

It is clear that even when this statement was being made to the local papers the decision had already been made. It takes several weeks to design and print posters and to process a full mailing to thousands of people. As our meeting went 'overtime' we left around 11am and ran into the local papers who were there for the announcement.

So in a very cynical manner the community was indeed consulted before the announcement
C124/09
RESOLVED PARKER/STAMOLIS

Council writes to the Health Minister and Premier expressing our deep concern with the decision to reduce the opening hours of the Hospital and express our disappointment with the process.

• That a meeting be sought with the Minister for Health with the Mayor and interested Councillors.
• That Council also write to the Local Member seeking her support.
• That Council convene a public meeting to discuss this matter and that the Local Member be invited.
  

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Socrates can't help but notice the involvement of the Leichhardt Division of General Practice in supporting the decision of SSWAHS to downgrade the Emergency Department Services at Balmain Hospital. You can imagine that the local Division of General Practice would plan to take over the responsibility for providing emergency treatment to the patients who would typically attend their Hospital's Emergency Department. But the question must be put: "Does every general practitioner have the requisite clinical skills to deal with the more complex medical emergencies seen at Hospital Emergency Departments?"

Old Socrates can't help but notice the similarities between what has happened at Balmain Hospital with the collusion of their Division of General Practice, and what is, likely to happen at Bowral Hospital with the current state of collusion between SSWAHS and the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice.

The Southern Highlands Division of General Practice could follow the example of the Medical Specialists: Patient care before the drachma grab.

Perhaps the Board and Dr Ruscoe of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice could be a bit more assertive about the care of their patients than they have demonstrated to date. Socrates keeps finding evidence of how medical specialists who use the Bowral Hospital to improve the quality of life for their patients are able to call a spade a spade when there is a clear need to do so. The following article from the Southern Highland News in June is a good example.

When there was a subsequent public rally in Bowral to make it clear to SSWAHS that shipping out services to other parts of their empire would not be acceptable there was no sighting by Socrates (who was there) of any of the local Division's general practitioners, or their Board members, or the sycophantic CEO of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice. Perhaps they were hiding out in the rooms that SSWAHS continues to provide them on the Bowral Hospital site. Most other Divisions of General Practice don't have it so good and have to find their own rented accommodation. Ah well! Sometimes SSWAHS providing the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice with publicly owned accommodation "prevents it from biting the hand that feeds it."

Dr disillusioned by Bowral Hospital system

Ben McClellan
16 Jun, 2010 09:23 AM


DOCTOR Nick Hartnell isn’t quite sure why he helped raise $10,000 for a hospital that is refusing to admit his elective surgery patients.

The Bowral orthopaedic surgeon said his patients were already being taken off Bowral Hospital’s waiting list and sent letters telling them to find another hospital at the same time as he was raising funds for the Daffodil Day fundraiser on April 18.

“So it is a complete slap in the face that they have taken me up on the daffs and money, and then shafted me,” he said.

The News revealed earlier this month admission forms for straight-forward procedures, such as cataract surgery, had been rejected by the Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS).

More than 50 patients have or will be receiving letters from Bowral Hospital general manager Denis Thomas informing them their procedure can’t be done at Bowral due to insufficient theatre time.

Ophthalmological surgeon Peter Macken, along with orthopaedic surgeons Dr Hartnell and Andrew Leicester, disagree and said their patients were being asked to find another surgeon and hospital because of bureaucratic decisions made by SSWAHS heads Mike Wallace and Teresa Anderson.

The bone surgeons are only allowed to do 110 joint replacements a year and a SSWAHS spokesperson said, as of June there were 203 patients on the waiting list, 126 of which were for joint replacements. There were 175 on the ophthalmological list, most of them for cataracts.

The waiting list has no limit, but all patients on it must be treated within a year.

Dr Hartnell said Bowral was one of the best hospitals for joint replacements and the waiting list cap had no logical base.

Mr Leicester said he wasn’t aware of any other surgeons in NSW who were restricted by a cap.

“So far for the year we have done 130, which proves the cap is ridiculous. It’s an arbitrary number pulled out of a hat,” Dr Hartnell said.

Bowral was one of the best performers at the last joint replacement audit in areas such as length of stay, completion rate and a low infection rate, Dr Hartnell said.

He and Mr Leicester had gone to Mr Wallace and Ms Anderson to work out cheaper, more efficient ways of doing more joint replacements, but their suggestions had fallen on deaf ears.

The pair were instead told to “re-educate” their GPs on sending patients elsewhere.

Dr Hartnell said SSWAHS wanted to move patients to RPA in Sydney because it had a shorter waiting list. He said it made more sense to transfer funds to Bowral rather than parcelling off patients to RPA.

“The argument that we are over budget is complete crap,” Dr Hartnell said.

Hospitals are obliged to treat patients within 12-months of receiving an admission form. By rejecting the admission outright, SSWAHS was ensuring the list didn’t go beyond 12 months. This was despite surgeons saying they had the time to do more procedures.

“We can provide the service and treat people within 12 months, but they won’t let us,” Dr Hartnell said.

Dr Hartnell and Mr Leicester each operate one day a week for eight hours a day, but both said they could do more operations if the hospital gave them more theatre time.

Mr Leicester said most of his elderly patients were in pain while they waited on the list.

“It’s very frustrating and upsetting for patients. I haven’t met one who is happy to go to another hospital,” he said.

“There are no problems with resources at Bowral, it makes no sense.”

He also said denying people surgery at their local hospital contradicted government policy and the health act.

Dr Hartnell said Mr Thomas’ argument – that an influx in out-of-area patients being part of the reason for booting patients off the waiting list – held no water.

“Only two are from the South Coast – the so-called out of area patients. So that is, roughly 3.5 per cent of my list is out of area,” Dr Hartnell said.

“The only reason I have these two is the surgeon in Nowra does not do hip replacements. So the argument of out-of-area patients is irrelevant.

“If you look at my patients of, say, 63 needing replacements in the area, the figures for the cap are based on completely wrong assumptions and I alone could do the 110 cap in one year.”

SSWAHS and their staff.

Now you might think that old Socrates is just gnawing on the bones of SSWAHS with the previous posts on this blog. Happily, I can tell you that there's still a lot of meaty bits on the bones of SSWAHS as we will see in the future.

However, let me be quick to make the point about the SSWAHS staff, particularly those who live and work in the Southern Highlands. Generally, they are faultless - with a work ethic that would shame the SSWAHS executive and bureaucrats in Liverpool and beyond. Apart from the exception of the person described in an earlier post, they do their work and make do with the very little that the SSWAHS administration provides to them.

There are people in both Bowral Hospital and the Community Health Centre who have spent many years engaging with their community, listening to their community and delivering to the best of their abilities the sort of quality health services that local people have expected and needed. In fact, the reason that Bowral Hospital and the community health services have been financially supported by the local community and businesses, to purchase equipment and develop specialist services, has been because of the respect that the community has for their District Hospital and its staff. Nursing, medical, allied health, and hotel services staff have all contributed their best in the care they deliver to their patients.

Too bad the same cannot be said about the executive staff of SSWAHS who rarely, if ever, even visit the Southern Highlands and, when the proverbial faeces hits the fan, they vanish like smoke and leave it to the local General Manager, Denis Thomas, to cop the flack and give the hard answers. Socrates believes that Denis Thomas doesn't get paid enough for his job! SSWAHS has put him out there with a bullseye painted on his back and nothing but an expired Harry Potter wand in his hand.

One consolation the Highlander community can have is that generally all the Wingecarribee staff are usually supportive of each other (apart from a notable exception) and remain determined to provide their best clinical and other support service to the community.

Socrates, at least, will attempt in this democracy to make his vote count in the upcoming elections, both Federal and State, to ensure that Bowral Hospital and its health services get the recognition it deserves and the local management which will give the best direction to our future in the Highlands.

Long may our democratic rights remain, and may our collective votes ensure the future growth of our local community.

And, if the Gods are really listening, perhaps they would like to send a serve of the pox on the SSWAHS Executive. :-))

Lines of communication opening at Bowral Hospital

TRAVIS HOLLAND - SHN

21 Jul, 2010 02:02 PM

"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.

SSWAHS fails the Bowral Health test

With the Federal election imminent and the NSW election early in the new year there must be some disquiet among the corridors of power in Liverpool! With the results of either election the monolith of the Sydney South West Area Health Service is about to be cut down. At least the people of the Southern Highlands will have the satisfaction in knowing that whether the colour of governments changes from red to blue (or remains the same) we will at least have some say in the structure and direction of our local health services.

Whatever the outcome of the elections we in the Highlands will be at last moving forward rather than taking the backward steps imposed upon us by the SSWAHS executive in Liverpool.

You know that you've been in trouble with the local health services and how they were managed when the very people who are meant to manage them cannot even find their way to a town like Bowral. True! One senior manager of one of the clinical streams in SSWAHS missed all those four larger than life RTA signs at the top of Catherine Hill pointing to the off-ramp from the F5 for Bowral and the rest of the Southern Highlands.

While the rest of the SSWAHS creamed off the funding for the health services for the executive staff they imported from the old Central Sydney Area Health Service, and for the machines that go "ping" for the medical and surgical clinical streams, Bowral Hospital was left to the hard work of it's staff and of the local community to raise the funds for the renal dialysis unit and for the refurbishment of the old Children's ward. If the hospital and local area auxiliary groups didn't raise the funds annually for basic equipment in Bowral Hospital we would have never got any clinical machine that went "ping".

The last word of this post is to the CEO and his micro-managing Deputy: the natives of the Southern Highlands are restless and are in revolt (perhaps even revolting) :-)