HEAL and its Efforts to Ensure Services at BMDAMH

Many community groups have asked about HEAL and the efforts to ensure services at Blue Mountains Hospital. Janet Mays, BMCC Deputy Mayor and HEAL spokesperson talks about Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital and why the HEAL group is working so hard to keep the issues at the hospital in the public eye.

In July 2007, I was ambulanced for a 2nd time to Nepean Hospital with suspected appendicitis. After a 6 hour wait at Nepean hospital, I was finally attended to and 27 hours after my ordeal began at Katoomba hospital, I was finally operated on. My post operative care was poor, due to inadequate staffing levels and a post operative infection topped off a frightening and totally unsatisfactory experience.

I launched HEAL (Hospital Equity & Access Lobby) following my hospital experience and quickly learnt that my experience was not unique. I met many Mountains residents with similar stories and who like me, believed that our local hospital could provide the services for which we had each been sent to Nepean hospital.

We then started to question why Mountains residents are routinely shipped to Nepean hospital and beyond for basic, primary health care services that were once available at Katoomba hospital. Services such as general surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology and urology. Where had the services gone to and why hadn’t the community been told of their departure?

Meetings with Sydney West Area Health Service management were generally frosty and our questions were met with either indignation or responses such as “we will get back to you”. We are still waiting for answers to many of our questions!

In the midst of all of this, the maternity service at Katoomba hospital began to again experience regular closures. Further, residents began ringing HEAL members with stories about the paediatrics unit being closed for regular periods.

We rallied and held public meetings and the maternity unit was again re-opened in July 2008. Although, recent stories of rushed trips to Nepean hospital and near births on the highway, clearly demonstrate that the service is far from stable and cannot be relied upon. The erratic nature of this service is a constant worry for expectant mums and dads.

Mountains residents are now part of the “spoke and hub” hospital model favoured by the NSW State Government. This model means that Blue Mountains residents (spoke) are required to be “fed” into Nepean hospital (hub) and beyond (Westmead) for basic, primary health care services. So the mystery is solved - this is where our services have gone to!

Sadly, the recent Federal budget supported this model by providing $96.4 million over five years, starting in 2008-09, to expand Nepean hospital’s infrastructure. In a media release announcing the Rudd Government funding for Nepean hospital, the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said “that an expanded Nepean Hospital will benefit people living in the outer Western Sydney areas of Penrith, Blacktown, the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury”.

So it has finally been said! The Blue Mountains is seen by the Federal Government and presumably its NSW State counterpart, as outer Western Sydney and we can travel for hospital services. Not good enough Mr Rudd and Mr Rees!

In June this year, HEAL launched a petition to ask the NSW State Government to

· Guarantee the future of BMDAMH and re-instate services that have been systematically downgraded or removed from the hospital such as general surgery;

· Guarantee the future of maternity and paediatric services at BMDAMH;

· Re-classify BMDAMH as a rural hospital.

We are seeking 10,000 signatures to send a very clear message to the State Government that Mountains residents will not tolerate the continued decline in the provision of local, primary basic health care services. Simply, Mountains residents deserve better!

Katoomba hospital is a cornerstone of our community; a major local employer and an essential service. We should not have to continually fight for its existence, but we will!

Most recently, 5 beds in the acute mental health unit at Katoomba hospital (opened in 2007) were permanently closed. The need for these beds hasn’t dissipated, just the service. And, for some in our community, this can truly mean the difference between life and death.

HEAL was formed to champion the case for the continuation of locally provided primary basic health care services in the Blue Mountains.

We believe that it is unjust that Mountains residents are not provided these services in their own geographic area; that our elderly population is disadvantaged by having to travel long distances for medical treatment and that Mountains residents are placed at an economic and social disadvantage by having to travel to Nepean hospital and beyond for hospital services.