The entire July 14, 2021 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

SIR, – Unfortunately it seems that the ‘community consultation’ conducted by Wimmera Health Care Group was just a tick the box exercise as I and many others feared it would be. 

Disappointment in the boards and chief executives of our local hospitals is what I and many of our communities are now feeling.

When filling out the survey, not once was I asked, ‘Would you like the WHCG to merge with Ballarat Health Services?’ On the face of it, the whole consultation was a charade to make sure they had met the requirements of the minister.

There are many questions the local hospital boards and chief executives need to answer... why not merge locally between Horsham, Edenhope and Stawell? Why is this the first option? Why not utilise shared services at a greater level? Wimmera communities are aware that running hospitals in regional areas is difficult. With nursing and doctor shortages, keeping beds always open is an issue for CEOs and clinical services directors, I can’t for the life of me see how merging with Ballarat will help with these issues.

To me there is only one answer why this is all came about so quickly – external influence. It is time the hospitals come clean about what pressures they are getting from the State Government to merge. What has Ballarat Health Services been promised by bringing these regional hospitals on board?

I fear that 15 years after the merger, we will have Ballarat and Horsham hospitals, and the others will become clinics and aged-care homes.

Robert Letts

Horsham

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