HANDS OFF YEA HOSPITAL!
The State Government plans to amalgamate Victorian hospitals. This is a cost cutting exercise from a government drowning in debt.
Amalgamations will lead to reductions in services or entire closures. The future of the Acute Care Emergency Centre, allied health services and 10 bed Yea and District Memorial Hospital is at risk.
There has been a complete lack of transparency and no consultation with rural communities about what is being planned.
Yea & District Memorial Hospital is Yea’s largest employer. It enables Yea to attract and retain GPs and other health providers. YDMH was in large part funded by past generations of residents. Closure or major reduction of services at YDMH will impact on the whole of the Yea community.
The Yea community needs to stand up and defend its health service. It needs to do this now.
The Shire Hall Public Meeting on Saturday 22 June 2024 at 9.30am is your opportunity to hear more about the Government plans. It is your opportunity to have your say and learn what you can do to help.
Please come to this Public Meeting. And bring your friends.
For more information contact Jan Beer 0407 144 777
You may have read about Premier Jacinta Allan's plans for regional health cuts and job losses which will be devastating for Victoria.
Regional and rural health services across Victoria are facing forced amalgamations, service cuts and closures as the Allan Labor Government slashes millions in health funding.
With the upcoming State Budget, reports have indicated Labor is forcing unrealistic savings targets on all of Victoria’s 76 health services, which will collectively see millions cut over coming years.
These funding cuts follow confirmation that more than a dozen regional health services suffered operating losses across 2022-23, with projections that by June 2024 more than half of Victoria’s health services will face negative daily cash balances.
Victorians should make no mistake, these are not changes to improve efficiency, but desperate and savage cuts triggered by Labor’s financial mismanagement.
What makes these cuts worse is under the Allan Labor Government, regional and rural communities across the state will be stripped of their voice in local health services.
These funding cuts by stealth are the real-world consequence of Labor’s financial mismanagement and it is patients across rural and regional Victoria who will suffer.
We know many Victorians are already struggling to access basic healthcare and are waiting longer for vital treatments and ambulance services. These cuts and threats of large-scale amalgamations demonstrate the disregard Labor has for rural and regional communities.
One of the greatest concerns regarding the amalgamation of our health services is the loss of the urgent care centre, which is of utmost importance to the community. The increased risk to human life at times of natural disasters such as the Black Saturday fire, major floods such as the October 2022 flood and our normal weather events such as Yea’s renowned very thick fogs which descend for 1-7 days without lifting. Access by helicopters due to poor or nil visibility during fires and fog periods and no road access due to floods puts our local community at huge risk if our acute care centre is taken away.
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Victoria's regional health services are bracing for forced amalgamations across the state hospital system as the opposition and current and former hospital CEOs criticise a lack of consultation and transparency.
An independent expert advisory committee is in the final stages of a Health Services Plan to radically reform the system. Sources who have seen the draft plan said it contained "sweeping" changes to the way Victoria's hospitals were administered.
Many within the regional hospital system said the changes would rip control of health services away from local communities, leading to a loss of local access and jobs.
Ben Silvester, Border Mail
Former board chair of the Timboon and District Health Service in south-west Victoria, John Vogels, said he was profoundly concerned about the amalgamations.
"It has come to [my] attention that the Victorian government has apparently decided to undertake a forced amalgamation and merger of local regional health services, leading to the sharing of services, without proper consultation with key stakeholders," Mr Vogels said.
"Of grave concern is the lack of transparency surrounding this decision. [I] understand that all current rural and regional health services board members have been compelled to sign a confidential disclosure form, preventing them from sharing any information with their local communities whom they represent."
Mr Vogels – a former mayor and state MP – said the "veil of secrecy" deprived the community of a voice in the amalgamation process, "which will undoubtedly result in funds being diverted from smaller hospitals, leading to the loss or reduction of local services and jobs."
He said the cloak and dagger suggested the mergers would "come at a significant cost to the community."
"broader amalgamations would not bring service improvements and would not help regional patients get the care they needed and deserved."
Former Portland District Health CEO Christine Giles
Opposition health spokeswoman, Georgie Crozier, said the Coalition was totally opposed to the amalgamations.
"This plan is a direct result of the waste and financial mismanagement of this government.
"It will end up in the loss of local services, the loss of local jobs and the loss of a local voice for people in regional Victoria."
"Labor is bailing out their own bank account and this situation raises serious concerns about the financial stability of Victoria’s frontline service delivery agencies, including schools, hospitals, community safety and emergency services."
Opposition finance spokeswoman Jess Wilson
Melburnians may think that people in regional Victoria are not as sophisticated as their metropolitan cousins. But I can assure you, we are not fools. We can smell a dead rat. We know when something is off.
Regional Victorians know that assurances of "no closures under my watch" are meaningless. The repeated turnover of health ministers in Victoria – Thomas is the fourth in 10 years – means such an assurance is shallow in the long run. The broken promises of the 2026 Commonwealth Games continue to resonate across the state.
Read more
Jan Beer, The Age Opinion