In October 2018 the Eurobodalla community charged ahead with its own vision for the future of local health services with over 3000 people signing a petition calling for better care now and one new combined hospital in the future.
Lead by Mourya based doctor Michael Holland under the banner of “One Eurobodalla Hospital,” the group already boasted 2700 members on Facebook standing behind the delivery of the petition to the Member for Bega, Andrew Constance on Friday (October 26th).
The 3000 plus signatures, collected over a three week period, supported the petition statement:
We the undersigned bring to the attention of the House that;
Constrained to limited services by their division of resources, Eurobodalla Health Services are disadvantaged relative to our nearest regional and base hospitals.
The combined number of services at Batemans Bay and Moruya District Hospitals are equal to or outnumber those of established regional or base hospitals within the Southern NSW Local Health District, such as South East Regional Hospital [Bega] and Goulburn Base Hospitals, which currently provide Intensive Care, Critical Care, and Mental Health services.
Within the distance of three hundred kilometres, there is no regional hospital between the Shoalhaven District Memorial Hospital and the South East Regional Hospital, thus restricting equitable health care to the residents of the Eurobodalla Shire.
There is an urgent and dire need to immediately improve Accident & Emergency, Critical Care and Perioperative Services in the Eurobodalla Shire.
The undersigned petitioners therefore respectfully ask the Legislative Assembly to direct the Minister for Health to;
Provide immediate improvement to the Accident & Emergency, Critical Care and Perioperative Services of the Eurobodalla Shire by funding and upgrading the existing infrastructure and workforce.
Commit to the funding, planning, and building of one new regional hospital for the Eurobodalla Shire, located at a site providing equitable access for the people of the Eurobodalla, which will provide medical services equal to those of the regional and base hospitals within the Southern NSW Local Health District. At the time the local member recognised the petition intent to remedy the urgent and dire need to immediately improve Accident & Emergency, Critical Care and Perioperative Services saying “We can stop sending people in ambulances over the hill to Canberra and costing us an arm and a leg, and stop putting so much pressure on families.” On October 31st 2018 the announcement by Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Member for Bega Andrew Constance that Eurobodalla Health Service would get $150 million to help build a new hospital was welcome.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said at the time that Health Infrastructure would be tasked to identify an appropriate location for the new hospital, with construction due to commence under the next term of Government. So far so good. Bricks and mortar are essential. As are the services to be provided.
Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, said the hospital funding was a record investment and will benefit patients throughout the Eurobodalla community for generations to come.
“We are ensuring quality and accessible health services for the region, capable of addressing future demand,” Mr Constance said in October 2018.
Three years on there is now a commitment to a site for the new hospital in Moruya however there is a distinct division building between what was promised and what will be delivered. In the meantime the existing services have been decimated with a loss of over 80 positions in an arms-length reorganising that has seen staff offered redundancies should they not wish to take up role reassignments at lesser wages.
The Bay Post reported in July 2021 that :
"South Coast health professionals are fired up over proposed cuts to beds in the maternity, pediatric and oncology wards in the new Eurobodalla Regional hospital which would directly impact clinical services in the region.
A revised Clinical Services Plan released by the Southern NSW Local Health District showed the existing seven beds in the Eurobodalla Maternity Service was proposed to reduce to three beds, while the pediatric beds would be reduced from six to four.
Eurobodalla specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Michael Holland said the proposal would not enable the hospital to operate at level four services and would impact residents in the Eurobodalla region as well as Milton, Ulladulla and Bega."
Fitzroy and Mylène Boulting, Head Petitioners & Co-Founders and “ONE” New L4 Hospital Advocates say:
"We have now passed the third anniversary since the Eurobodalla community presented its massively subscribed 2018 Petition to NSW Parliament. It contained an unambiguously clear 3-point message which left no room for confusion as to community expectations and the unacceptable conditions endured by long-suffering patients and Medical workforce alike over years of neglect and ineffective management.
"During the 2019 State elections campaign, in response to the Petition, then-Premier Gladys
Berejiklian with the Local Member for Bega in tow flew in to make public commitments to
the community in front of local and State media that it would at long last be given the
proper Level 4 Hospital it had been crying out for long and loud. “let’s get cracking (on the
hospital)” were her parting words before flying out, once again with the Local Member in
tow, almost as quickly as she and her entourage had arrived.
"Three years on, and despite the extreme urgency of the list of shocking shortfalls, most if
not all of the 2018 Petition’s 3-point message remains mostly undelivered or not even
implemented! Where, for instance, during all this time has there been any evidence of such
elementary organisational basics as actioning (not just ”progressing”) the range of Medical
Specialists recruitment and Staff training associated with a Level 4 Hospital? "There has now been plenty of time for SNSWLHD to “get cracking” and to get an important basic management tasking like this up and running. But why the foot dragging? Are we by any chance looking at another repeat of the well-reported and worrying saga of poor judgement and multiple miss-steps accompanying SNSWLHD’s previous rolling out of
Bega Regional Hospital?
"One would have thought that in the context of the ‘’Health outcomes and access to health
and hospital services in rural, regional and remote New South Wales” Inquiry, the NSW
Government would not miss the opportunity of solving at least one area’s access to health
services?
The recently announced spate of State By-elections significantly includes the Seat of Bega of which Eurobodalla is an important part. This will likely be followed in quick succession by
Federal Elections including the Seat of Gilmore. Fortunately for the Eurobodalla community,
Gilmore’s Member, Hon Fiona Phillips MP, has been a loyally consistent and vocal supporter
of a proper Level 4 Hospital complete with services including (Local Member for Bega please take note) Mental Health relevant to a district hit mercilessly by bushfires and the series of crises that have subsequently followed one on top of the other.
"In contrast to our Federal Member, it is all the more disappointing that our Local Member has displayed absolutely no interest to engage with the community’s New Petition or to actively advocate for all the Petition’s thousands of signatories on all the key issues it has highlighted of critically inadequate health services resourcing, including in Mental Health, and the effective non-delivery of Level 4 services in the new Hospital on ribbon-cutting.
"In the context of a local By-pass sanctioned by him and costing some $900M whilst the new Hospital only merits a $200M allocation, how does he, and a SNSWLHD project he has now personally endorsed, justify the closure of both a level 2 and a level 3 hospital merely to be replaced with another, reduced-down level 3 hospital?
His visually prominent endorsement on SNSWLHD’s website, with remarkable prescience on his part just as elections arrive, but not so intelligently of its plans to deliver the above egregious shortfalls, not only contradict his previous support of the 2018 Petition but is effectively a complete dismissal of the current crystal-clear messaging of thousands of his own constituents. It seems he is simply over it, is no longer interested and has far more important fish to fry.
“ONE” Advocates and the Eurobodalla community must accept that in making a personal
choice to go over from State to Federal Politics, already flagged in last year’s short-lived
nomination for the Federal Seat of Eden-Monaro, that quite some time back the current
Local Member for Bega had already clearly chosen to move on. And so must the Community and “ONE” Advocates.
"We must also accept that we need to find someone at this late stage who will fearlessly and vocally advocate for us and our Hospital in NSW Parliament and, most importantly at this precise moment, to sponsor and champion our two current and massively subscribed Petitions in the Bear Pit. We need someone matching words with concrete actions on the ground.
"Though burdened with many demanding responsibilities, the Hon Ryan Park MP, Shadow
Minister for Health and Shadow Minister for the South Coast, has stepped into the breach
and joined with our Community just as it faces its biggest battles which the Local Member
clearly no longer has the heart or interest to fight on our behalf. "We thank and acknowledge Hon Ryan Park MP’s commitment and concern. That he is willing to make a 6 hour round car journey to visit our Community is testament to the strength and sincerity of his commitment. We welcome that involvement and proactivity.
Overcoming all the obstacles of months of Covid restrictions and lockdowns and bettering even the first 2018 Petition’s impressive final count, the community’s network of hard-
working “ONE” Advocates supporters has achieved a remarkable result for the new 2021
paper Petition: a 380 page count comprising a current total of three thousand, four
hundred and fifty-three (3,453) signatures.
At a presentation ceremony on Wednesday November 3rd, 2021 a copy of the
Petition destined for Federal Parliament was handed to Hon Fiona Phillips MP, Member
for Gilmore, by Ms Cathie Hurst on behalf of our community:
and likewise, a copy to Hon Ryan Park MP destined for NSW Parliament from the hand of Ms Kerri Riches.
"Both Cathie and Kerri, from close personal and family experience, have firm views which SNSWLHD/NSW Health would do well to attentively listen to on the desperate need for proper healthcare services in the Eurobodalla, in the areas of Oncology Treatment services and of Paediatrics & Neo-Natal Emergency Care respectively, said Fitzroy and Mylène Boulting
