Friday, October 30, 2009

A Victory: Katoomba Hospital in The NSW Parliament


On Thursday October 29th 2009, a Motion was introduced and accepted in the Legislative Assembly of the NSW Parliament calling on the Government to direct SWAHS to permanently maintain services at the Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital. The Motion which was accepted reads as follows with its with amendments:

"That this House calls on the Government to honour its commitment to the member for Blue Mountains and local residents that the maternity unit at Blue Mountains hospital will remain open permanently and that this House acknowledges current concerns regarding staff recruitment and calls upon the Government to direct the Sydney West Area Health Service to do all that is necessary to permanently maintain services at Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital."

You can read the entire transcript from the Hansard here.

4 comments:

  1. Do "current concerns regarding staff recruitment" include the three to six months many applicants are often expected to wait between their interview and being offered the job?
    And what was all that winking about in the Hansard minutes?

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  2. Motions of this kind won't change the facts.
    There will always be a shortage of medical staff whilst there are so few deliveries and surgical procedures. There will always be a shortage of anaesthetists whilst the operating theatre is closed more than half the week.
    The cost per delivery at Katoomba is about 10 times the cost per delivery at Nepean. I repeat 10 times the cost. If you gave Nepean 10 times it's budget for maternity, you might see a few change down there.
    Don't forget that Nepean and Nepean Private Maternity provide service for the lower Blue Mountains and Katoomba Maternity provides service for the upper Blue Mountains population so Nepean is just as important for Blue Mountains residents.

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  3. I'd be interested in seeing the data behind your claim, but either way, service delivery should be based on Best Practice, not the lowest common denominator.
    "But Nepean doesn't have resources allocated" is hardly an argument why other services shouldn't.

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  4. If the Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital is functioning like it used to, providing the level of elective surgery, Maternity Services, High Dependency, Peadiatrics etc, it will take an enourmous amount of pressure off Nepean Hospital. Reducing Services in the Blue Mountains is not going to help Nepean in the least.

    ReplyDelete

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