I FEEL sick about the state of our health system – and I know I am not alone.
But as a regional Victorian as well as a longtime Parliamentarian, one of the things I have valued most has been the local hospital, health centre or even bush nursing station.
Because they are such an irreplaceable and such a vital part of our communities and our lives – and our communities, for countless generations, have invested so much of their own time and money in doing everything they can to help them remain viable and accessible.
And local.
Now, despite our warnings, our best efforts and so many protests from people across regional Victoria, the Allan Labor government has launched its stealth attack on the independence of our local health services.
While you and I have been happily enjoying our Christmas/New Year holidays, the Allan Labor government has been working behind closed doors and begun tearing down the way our health services have, by and large, been so well run for so many years.
Premier Jacinta Allan’s “under the holiday radar” announcement of her Labor government’s new local health service networks is the first step – and a bloody big first step – to force mergers on regional health services.
The very mergers this duplicitous government has consistently denied it was going to do.
In my electorate, under Labor’s new scheme, Boort, Echuca, Rochester, Kerang, Cohuna, and Swan Hill are now all going to be shoved into the Loddon Mallee Health Network, which will be headquartered in Bendigo, along with Bendigo Health, Dhelkaya Health, Heathcote Health, Inglewood and Districts Health Service, Mallee Track Health and Community Service, Mildura Base Public Hospital and Robinvale District Health Services.
If you don’t think Premier Allan wants to merge our health systems into a centralised model, with all decisions made elsewhere, then why in the hell would you have Mildura in the same district as Bendigo – because it now is.
Those two centres – which are like chalk and cheese – are more than 400km apart, for heaven’s sake.
That might seem so obviously ridiculous to you and me, because it is, just as it is ridiculous to assume any of the major health hubs in my electorate will be better off with the big decisions being made in Bendigo.
And let’s not kid ourselves, those decisions will only be the initial ones.
Under this Labor Premier and this Labor government, control is everything and it won’t be long before all these you-beaut local networks will be sucked into the financial blackhole that is Melbourne.
Where valuable funding for our local health services delivery will be lost in the Labor shuffle as it searches desperately for more funding to prop its disastrous Big Bill projects in its voting heartland.
Yes, this is merger by stealth, The Nationals raised that alarm more than a year ago and now here it is.
Now we should all be on red alert because it is another sign of Labor’s plans to take away local decision making and reduce local services. If Labor pulls this one off, who knows what the next local target will be.
Even worse, by centralising decision-making and merging regional health services with metropolitan or major regional hospitals, Labor is wiping out local jobs and the ability to prioritise the unique needs of regional communities.
As I have said over and over, this heavy-handed approach will see regional voices sidelined, and critical resources funnelled back into the city where, like all those other disappearing billions of dollars in all those failing Big Bill projects in Melbourne, they will never be seen again.
Our regional communities deserve more than being treated like second-class citizens and their local health services stripped of their autonomy, particularly when you see how much all those services have been improved by local donations, local fundraising and local commitment.
Strong, locally managed health services are vital for ensuring timely care and meeting the unique demands of regional Victorians.
It’s time for a government that listens to all Victorians and values equitable healthcare outcomes, no matter where you live – Labor is making the health system sicker, not healthier, and regional Victorians will pay the price.
* Peter Walsh, member for Murray Plains