FOLLOWING on from The Spectator’s front-page story on Wednesday, August 8, which quoted a local physician expressing concerns about the Victorian Government’s plans to amalgamate multiple health services, in an about-turn on Thursday, health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas has reportedly ditched such plans.

Earlier this week, Dr Andrew Bowman said locals were concerned they were being left in the dark about what was happening with regards to a possible merger of Western District Health Service (WDHS) with other regional health services.

“At this point we have no idea about anything,” he said.

However, since then, the government has appeared to bow to public pressure, including through petitions and rallies, and backflipped on its plans to merge regional health services.

Opposition leader, John Pesutto said it was a “humiliating backdown” and that the government was “lurching from one crisis to another”.

“These funding cuts were never about efficiencies or better services but mopping up the real-world consequence of a decade of financial mismanagement and record debt under Labor,” he said.

Instead, the government has announced $1.5 billion for hospitals which has been welcomed by chief executives across the state, notwithstanding little detail about how it will be distributed.

However, although the government has said it will not force amalgamations of Victoria’s 76 health services, it has said it will introduce significant reforms by adopting 26 of the 27 recommendations proposed by the Expert Advisory Committee (EAC) as part of its Health Services Plan.

The government will introduce a new agency in the Department of Health with a chief executive who reports directly to the health minister.

‘Hospitals Victoria’ will be established to help hospitals identify back-office functions that can be consolidated and streamlined.

Another of the key recommendations put forward by the EAC was to introduce new Local Health Service Networks that will bring together hospitals within a geographical region.

These networks propose to support hospitals to collaborate, enabling them to work together to deliver care.

Once a network has been established, hospitals will share functions like payroll and IT - designed to enable hospitals to better focus on patient care.

The government’s reforms will also see a connected Electronic Medical Record System to all hospitals established to provide seamless and efficient care for patients.

Currently, health services use different patient record systems - some of them paper based which the government said are outdated and inefficient and cause needless stress for patients.

But Lowan MP Emma Kealy was sceptical and said the government was marching ahead with mergers of regional health services regardless of its spin and rhetoric.

She said the report released on Thursday proved that and showed that regional health services will be consolidated into five Local Health Service Networks.

“Premier Allan has claimed there will be no forced amalgamations, but these are mega mergers which also create another level of bureaucracy,” Ms Kealy said.

She said the government can call them networks or alliances, but it is still planning massive amalgamations.

“If it looks like a merger, impacts hospitals like a merger, then it is a merger,” Ms Kealy said.

“It is illogical to think adding another layer of administrative bureaucracy would ever make Victoria’s health system more efficient.

“Local jobs and local services will be lost.

“This has all happened because Labor can’t manage money and regional health services are paying the price.”

WDHS comes under the Barwon South West region, spanning from Glenelg on the South Australian border to Geelong and aligns with existing Health service Partnerhsips. This network has the highest population of all the proposed regional Networks approaching 500,000 people by 2036.

WDHS and Casterton Memorial Hospital dual chief executive, Rowena Clift said she welcomed the Victorian Government’s release of the Health Services Plan.

“In its announcement, the Government made it clear that health services won’t be forced to amalgamate,” she said. 

“The Government announced on Thursday that it had accepted in full, or in-principle 26 of the 27 recommendations proposed by the EAC, which was tasked with examining the design and governance of Victoria’s health services in July last year.

“We’ll take the time to read the 179-page report in full and will be seeking further briefings with the Department before deciding on any next steps.”

Ms Clift said the release of the plan will reduce speculation, uncertainty and community angst regarding forced mergers.

“We have also received some preliminary advice regarding budgets, and will provide an update on this, as soon as we have more details,” she said.

“The Victorian Government has stated there will be no impacts to frontline services or frontline jobs.

“We’ll be working with the Department of Health over the next week to finalise our budget for the year ahead – including any additional funding amounts and agreed activity targets.”

The ‘Hands Off Our Hospitals’ rally planned for Friday, August 16 in Warrnambool has been postponed.