FEDERAL Government funding cuts have forced Colac Area Health to permanently close the hospital’s overnight urgent care service.
Hospital will cut emergency care
Colac Area Health chief Geoff Iles says the hospital has closed an overnight urgent care service to cover government funding cuts.
26 Responses to “Hospital will cut emergency care”
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The CAH has been running at a loss of over $1 million despite huge funding injections from the federal government. They have continued to expand and increased executive payouts by 250K last year whilst running at a $1 million loss. Now the state government says they won’t keep propping up their losses, so the CAH executives cut their salaries back…. Nope they cut emergency services.
That extra $250 K pay to *executives* last year would have kept the emergency department open for another year at least. Shameful. Bloody shameful
Time from the board, the CEO and the Baillieu government to be sacked.
This fails to recognise the role the emergency plays in dealing with Mental Health- the impact of this closure for any person in this catchment suffering from an acute episode needing urgent medical and mental health support will be signiicantly delayed that will most likely cause deaths. Let alone the impact on Police and ambulance who will be caught up holding, transporting and supporting the process which will go from about 1/2 hr to 4-6 hours. Is this seriously ok?
Geoff Iles & the board of directors have put a time limit on peoples health & lives. Shame on you , I am disgusted .Give up your perks , Car,home, phones, big meals provided to you when you have your meetings.Look at the higher receiving all the perks and doing nothing for it.Your workers (domestic & medical Staff)are over worked and stressed. You do not miss out on big money it is paid to you to run our hospital and you have failed.
Come on Terry Mulder do something
$250k a year to run A & E overnight. This equates to 3.5 cents per day per person within the catchment area. We live in the most marginal political seat in the country, yet political parties of each persuasion treat us like sh–!! I have just paid $4 in stamp duty, 2k in fire service levy and now $30k in payroll tax and you tell me if my child is sick at night to go to Geelong. I tell you all involved to go to hell. I hope you sleep well at night while the sick suffer at your hand.
Ok so we have to go to geelong but who is to say the person transported by our limited ambulances is going to make it? And for alot of colacs community that don’t drive what for them once they have been seen in geelong? Must they walk home or walk the streets till the morning train? You really haven’t thought about how much danger this is going to put everyone in, or how hard you are going to make it for everyone! HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DIE OR BE SERUOUSLY INJURED BEFORE ITS MADE CLEAR HOW MYCH OF A MISTAKE THIS IS! I feel sorry for those people that are going to be able to hold the budget cuts accountable for the death of loved ones. I just hope it’s not my child when she has another allergic reaction or myself if I have an asthma attack!! This is seriously stupid and our community deserves so much better than this!! Not to mention the local jobs that will cut and hours decreased! I can honestly say because of this there is going to be a hell of alot more problems to come for colac!
What happens to the people with a chronic illness, like nyself, who needs immediate attention, eg. to be stablised before been transferred to Geelong for extra care.I am oxygen 24/7, and my condition can change in a very short time. Can we rely on the ambulance service to be able to get to people asap when needed..
I am concerned that now we do not have that back-up that gives you piece of mind.
So the baillieus cut the health, CFA and education budget.
Cuts to the education budget as well.
The state government have also cut the CFA budget.
Anybody requiring emergency care overnight and needs and ambulance will now need to be transported to Geelong, in Colacs only ambulance, by the time it clears Geelong hospital and gets back to Colac that’s a three hour turn around time, three hours the community doesn’t have either an emergency department or an ambulance every time there is a call out. A poor state of health
Mulder get off your back side….
All I can say is how sad this is for the whole community !!!
the board should be sacked, along with the state health minister.
the state government have cut back funding to the ambulance service as well.
State government runs the state health system, they need to take responsibility for it and restore the funding for the service. $616 million state health budget cuts are huge. Mulder and baillieu will have deaths on there hands if they don’t.
this makes me wanna cry!!!!! what is our goverment coming too julia gillard YOU ARE TO BLAME i bet you wouldnt have too wait on 1 ambulance to drive YOU the hour-long drive to get medical attention and not too mention too bad if that 1 ambulance is already on its way too geelong or attending someone else i can understand that it does cost money too keep things like this open but why does it allways seems that colac and its people are the ones that suffer..
Emergencies aren’t limited to daylight hours.Get real CAH. Stand up and fight for accepted standards. God help the sick or injured overnight when Colac’s one ambulance night crew is somewhere up the highway. Disgraceful funding and disgraceful result!
The point has been missed. The Liberal State Government is culpable when it comes to providing decent funds for public health. Terry Mulder, the local member should go into bat for the Colac community. He should urge David Davis to provide the funds so that Colac hospital can run in a way that the community needs. However, I’m not holding my breath.
I have questions. The emergency department closes at 10pm. What if someone comes in at 9.45pm. Do they get kicked out the door at 10pm?
What happens if there is a car accident or similar? Everyone gets transported to Geelong and hope they make it?
What if a child has a severe asthma attack at 3am?
What if there is a major fire in the otways and there are multiple casualties in desperate need of medical care. Are they all to be transported to Geelong?
I’ve been to Geelong Hospital’s emergency department. Line out the door and i had to push my way in to get to my son who had been transported by ambulance, copping abuse from the people i was passing on my way in.
Is this what we are going to have to live with now? Hope that if something happens, it happens during the day?
Yes, we understand that we are lucky enough to not have a lot of urgent cases going through. The problem is whether that urgent case that does turn up can survive the trip to Geelong.
Back when the hospital was first established in Colac, people subscribed to it’s services. Pity we can’t do that to keep the emergency department open.
Its crazy!!! Now as I’ve said elsewhere about this situation- why could the cost not be covered by the community, add extra to our rate.
The bloody Government do it for just about anything else.
Kennett wanted to close the hospital in the 90s. We now have a new lib state government and here we go all over again.
Heavens!!! This is one of the most shocking things that has happened to Colac. Can all concerned stop trying to point out who is to blame and for a change stand up and find a solution. We are not living in a third world or an out of the way back water with a small population. This is simply not good enough and it will cost lives and greatly diminishes the Colac Otway region as a place to live.
Time for someone to take a stand and DO SOMETHING!!
Terry Mulder must be in cloud cuckoo land. The $616 billion cut in the Health budget by the government of which he is a member of has had an enormous impact on health services provided in this State. He should get off his backside and have State Liberal Health Minister Davis restore some of the funding. Then Colac’s overnight urgent care service could remain open!
So, is Colac trying to be a leading regional centre or a country backwater? A hospital providing services for a community of 20,000 people must surely be able to provide around-the-clock emergency care.
I can only imagine the fall-out from the first death after someone has failed to make it to Geelong in time. Wonder what the legal implications would be?
This decision makes a mockery of the Australian Medical Association’s commitment to the Declaration of Geneva which says, in part: “The health of my patient will be my first consideration.”
What a laugh. As always, money appears to be the first consideration.