MATTHEW Guy has paid his first visit to Portland since returning as Opposition Leader as he heard first-hand from those most affected by the crisis at Portland District Health.

About 40 invited locals had an opportunity to put their concerns to Mr Guy, as well as Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier (a former midwife at Casterton hospital and the daughter of former State Member for Portland Digby Crozier) and State Member for South-West Coast Roma Britnell.

Those concerns ranged from birthing to ophthalmology (both services no longer offered at PDH since March), general surgery, the difficulties of travelling to Warrnambool or Mount Gambier as the remaining options for a variety of treatments or even just getting an ambulance.

There was also some historical context from Norm Perkins, who referred back to the last community campaign against cuts to PDH – that of 2006 when a community group was set up to save the emergency care service.

The Opposition politicians had earlier met with doctors and sacked former chief executive Christine Giles (who was also at the forum) and were asked the obvious question by Portland resident Steve Rogers after hearing the issues.

“What do you plan to do about it if you get to government,” he said.

Mr Guy said many of the issues affected the health system statewide, from the shortage of 000 call takers to there being not enough ambulances to overcrowded emergency departments.

“The system is a mess,” he said.

“We can fix local issues, put the money into these services here, keep birthing open, but the problem is right around the state.

“If you don’t acknowledge you have a problem, you can’t fix it.”

Ms Crozier and Ms Britnell said the issues could be fixed.

“It’s not just about throwing billions and billions of dollars at this,” Ms Crozier said.

While clinicians didn’t “grow on trees”, she repeated a solution previously advanced by Ms Giles.

“If you educate and train people closer to home they’re more likely to stay in their local communities,” she said.

 “You’re not relying on (medical staff from overseas), we don’t want to do that.

“At the moment we’re just being told ‘we’ve got it under control’ when we’ve got clinicians leaving saying it’s dire and hopeless.”

Ms Britnell pointed to the government’s failure to act on the 2017 perinatal inquiry, when it was warned there would be a shortage of midwives and it needed to act then to train them.

“There are really practical solutions to incentivise (midwife training,” she said.

“We have ways to make this work.”

That also included more throughput in surgery.

“When Christine Giles was the CEO she did a fantastic job (getting surgeons in from as far as Adelaide and Melbourne, as well as the helipad).

“Christine did a good job (and) what’s the board done, given all those jobs away.

“I’m shocked at how ruthlessly Portland has been treated.

“I’ve never seen in my career doctors come out and speak, nurses come out and speak, ambulance officers come out and speak but it’s happening now.

“We will work so hard to make sure we get the services back we need.”