Petition

We need at least 2,000 signatures on a petition to get it tabled before Parliament.

Public Meeting

The Shire Hall Public Meeting on Saturday 22 June 2024 at 9.30am is your opportunity to hear more about the Government plans.

List of Concerns

A secretive Health Services Plan has been devised by the Victorian Government as a cost cutting measure. This will affect all smaller regional country hospitals...

Have Your Say

Labor's health cuts and threats of large-scale amalgamations demonstrate the disregard Labor has for rural and regional communities.

Hands Off Yea Hospital

'I encourage everyone in our community to take a stand, speak up about what is threatened and demonstrate support for our Yea Hospital.'

Natural Disasters

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...

YDMH History

A very short history of Yea and District Memorial Hospital.

Buy a T-shirt

Support the Save Yea Hospital campaign and buy a t-shirt. Prices start at $23.27.

Media Mentions

Quotes and mentions about the ramifications of amalgamation of Victoria's 76 health services into 12.

Letters

Letters from concerned stakeholders and residents.

This raises our very real concerns about the loss of our hospital services and amalgamation into large and distant regional hub hospitals such as Shepparton or Epping Northern Hospital.

Anyone in the state of Victoria can sign the petition, including anyone under 18 years.

We are not doing an electronic petition as 10,000 signatures are required for that – too many for the short time we have. 

You must legibly write your name, address (NOT A P.O. box number) and signature.

As from next week, 27 May on, there will be petitions in many of the local shops and in the Yea football clubrooms. If you are unable to attend any of these but would like to sign the petition, the petition form is available to download, complete and return.

PUBLIC MEETING YEA SHIRE HALL SATURDAY 22 JUNE 9.30AM

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 

List of Concerns

A secretive Health Services Plan has been devised by the Victorian Government as a cost cutting measure. This will affect all smaller regional country hospitals, their local Hospital Board of Management and allied health services.

Under this scenario Victoria's 76 health services will be merged to become just 12, with 6 city hubs and regional Victoria being divided into six sub-regions.

  1. This will remove the powers, responsibilities and authority of our local Yea and District Memorial Hospital (YDMH) Board, replacing it with an administration at a remote and distant location, completely unable to quickly respond to local health care needs, such as health and welfare checks carried out at Yea Saleyards monthly cattle sales, which we believe are a world first innovation.
  2. There has been no community consultation undertaken by the Government at all, though we believe this is a legislative requirement.
  3. The local Hospital Board and its Chair have been gagged by the Government, so are unable to even alert the community on plans to amalgamate services and hospitals into larger regional hubs.
  4. This new ‘Health Services Plan’ places at risk the continued delivery at YDMH of urgent care, acute care, community health care, as well as residential aged care services on which our community relies.
  5. The plan threatens long standing community ownership of, and engagement with our hospital, skilled local jobs and future hospital donations and bequests.
  6. As the hospital is the largest employer in the town, this Health Services Plan threatens the ongoing viability of local traders, businesses and the very township itself.
  7. The local Hospital Board’s proven record of successful financial, accreditation, recruitment and innovation are all placed at high risk.
  8. And the greatest concern is 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.

Have Your Say: Labor's Health Cuts 2024

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.

Keep Your Hands Off Yea Hospital

Residents of Yea, Alexandra and across Murrindindi Shire, should be deeply troubled by metropolitan media reports last week that Victoria’s rural hospitals face being amalgamated into a small number of networks. Under the reported changes, existing hospitals will lose their CEOs and local boards would be replaced by advisory committees.

Reports indicate that these changes are designed to deliver savings to help reduce the ever-increasing and spiralling debt crisis created by the Victorian Government.

Once again it seems that regional Victoria faces a major reduction in services as a result of excessive levels of spending occurring in metropolitan Melbourne. And health care is one key area where gross inequity already exists in terms of access to services for people in country Victoria.

Let there be no doubt, when Government Ministers spruik amalgamations, this will inevitably lead to a reduction in local access to services. Over time it will lead to closure of local facilities as services are centralised elsewhere in the interests of so-called ‘increased efficiency’.

Yea Hospital has a special place in our hearts and our community. It was established as a Memorial Hospital after World War Two to remember our fallen soldiers. It owes its existence to many of our forebears who donated large sums towards the building. The Emergency Department was also the result of major local fundraising in the 1990’s. Some will remember its official opening by Sir Weary Dunlop.

Today Yea and District Memorial Hospital continues to provide excellent care for our community. It provides a wide range of residential and community services. The recent Saleyards outreach program and the Flood Recovery Support Program are examples of the way in which through local leadership our health service is responding innovatively to local needs.

YDMH is also the biggest employer in our town. It provides employment for over 80 people. It purchases goods and services within the local community. Closure of services would seriously impact our local economy.

Yea and surrounding areas would be a much less liveable community without the Yea Hospital. With limited public transport, the large numbers of elderly in our community would be denied ready access to health care. A major reduction in services is likely to affect Yea’s ability to attract and retain GPs and allied health providers.

Small towns in regional Victoria such as Yea really suffered as a result of past amalgamations of local government, the loss of major banks and other essential services. Losing our health service is one step too far.

The Victorian Government must not meddle with our health service. Regional Victoria did not contribute to government cost blow-outs and will largely miss out on any benefits of the Government’s undisciplined city- centric spending spree.

I encourage everyone in our community to take a stand, speak up about what is threatened and demonstrate support for our Yea Hospital.

A Very Short History of Yea and District Memorial Hospital


A public appeal to fund the construction of a new 10-bed hospital was commenced in1948. It was named the Yea and District Memorial Hospital and was built largely on funding from the Yea Community who believed it should be built as a memorial to honour local men and women from Yea and surrounding districts who lost their lives in active service defending our country during World War 2.

In 1972 the Apex Club of Yea contributed significantly providing funding for an additional 3-bed acute wing.
In 1990-1991 the Accident and Emergency complex was rebuilt at the hospital through a massive fund-raising effort by the Yea community, with a number of local donors giving in excess of $5,000 and many more giving as much as they could afford at the time.

Marie Tehan, Victorian Government MP at the time and mother of current Federal MP, Dan Tehan was prominent in helping the community with fund raising and Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop opened the new acute care emergency centre.

My uncle Peter Lawrance, was killed in a tank defending Dobradura aerodrome in New Guinea in 1943, so I personally feel the actions of the Victorian Government are completely disrespectful. These men fought and died so that their families and country would remain safe and free.

Now we have a government that has secretly and by stealth, without any community consultation, decided that we should lose our hospital services, our local board and amalgamate our small but very efficient hospital into a much larger regional hub.

We must fight to retain all our hospital services, our local board and the hospital itself. Now is the time to make your voice heard. Stand up and fight so that we retain our health services, our local Hospital Board, our GPs.

Increased Risk to Human Life at times of Natural Disasters

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.

Buy a T-shirt

Explore our curated selection of Save Yea Hospital t-shirts or create your own using the uploaded Save Yea Hospital designs. Choose from a wide array of t-shirt brands, styles, and colours.

Short-sleeve t-shirts from $23.27
Long-sleeve t-shirts from $28.93
All profits support the Save Yea Hospital campaign.

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Quotes on Amalgamation

Under the scenario where Victoria's 76 health services merged to become just 12, regional Victoria would be divided into six sub-regions

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