Eastern Eyre Health Advisory Board chief Dean Johnson quits
THE regional health advisory board chief has quit over his frustration at the lack of State Government response.
THE regional health advisory board chief has quit over his frustration at the lack of State Government response.
Dean Johnson — presiding member of the Eastern Eyre Health Advisory Board and the Kimba Mayor — said the regional health system was a “top down approach that inevitably results in depleted local services and poorer outcomes”.
Mr Johnson said the Kimba District Council had spent almost $100,000 to attract a GP to Kimba, due to “little or no effort on recruiting” by Country Health SA and Health Minister Stephen Wade.
Kimba and neighbouring Cowell do not have a resident GP, but Cleve — located inside the health advisory council — has multiple GPs funded by Country Health SA.
“We have again been left to our own devices to recruit another doctor. Clearly this is not even a local government responsibility,” he said in his resignation letter.
Mr Wade said he would visit Eyre Peninsula in the near future to discuss the issue, and forecast a solution that involved all three levels of government, but admitted rural GP workforce was a challenge.
“Truthfully though, if we don’t do it, we will lose even the most basic of medical services.” Mr Johnson said it was “totally unacceptable” that he had written to Mr Wade “multiple times without reply or even acknowledgment”.
Mr Wade told Parliament his records showed he had only received one letter from Mr Johnson and a meeting request from the council. He said Mr Johnson’s difficulties with Country Health were exactly why the Government was establishing regional board governance.
He told Parliament this week that the rural GP workforce was a “challenge”. “We will continue to work with both federal and local government to do what we can to address that need.”
SA Best MP Frank Pangallo said regional communities were being provided with “lip service” by the Government.
“It is both disgraceful and unacceptable that people in our regions have to accept health services akin to a third-world country,” he said.
“They have as much right to an essential standard of medical care and easy access to practitioners like those in the city.”
Labor health spokesman Chris Picton said it was “pretty disrespectful” to not respond to Mr Johnson’s concerns and said the Government needed to match its regions first rhetoric with action.