‘Hands off our hospital’: Victorian towns fighting to keep health services

Victorian towns facing hospital amalgamations are preparing to fight the state government to keep their regional health services as the opposition pushes the auditor-general to investigate the true financial state of the health system.

Regional councils will join the fight against proposed hospital amalgamations and local community groups prepare to hold rallies this weekend, with organisers expecting up to 1000 people to attend a community meeting on Saturday in Mansfield, north-east of Melbourne, against a proposed merger.

Anti-amalgamation signs near Mansfield.

Ahead of the May budget, The Age revealed more than half of the state’s health services were running low on cash, and did not have 14-day cash supplies to cover operating expenses, which is the benchmark used for Victorian hospitals.

Following the budget, the Allan government wrote to the state’s health services to spruik billions of dollars of spending contained in it but made clear there would be no further funding provided beyond what was committed.

In response, opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier has referred the government’s threat to Victorian Auditor-General Andrew Greaves, pushing for a full audit of the state’s health services.

“The Victorian community deserve to know the true financial state of the state’s 75 health services and the sustainability of their funding arrangements,” Crozier wrote.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier.Credit: Justin McManus

Traditionally, letters of comfort were issued to directors of health service boards to assure them the Victorian government would cover any cash shortfalls resulting from operational costs exceeding their budgets.

“The secretary of the Department of Health, at the direction of the minister, has now advised health services that no further letters of comfort will be delivered,” Crozier wrote.

Crozier said directors of public entities, including health service boards, were bound by the provisions of the Public Administration Act, which mandates that directors “act in a financially responsible manner”.

She has also asked that the auditor-general investigate whether the decision to cease providing letters of comfort exposes directors of health services to adverse action if the health services are not provided with adequate support from the government.

Regional hospitals and councils are stepping up their fight against potential hospital amalgamations, with the state government considering reducing Victoria’s 75 health services to 12 – six in metropolitan Melbourne and six in regional Victoria.

A leaked document, seen by The Age, revealed one of the options would mean dozens of existing health services losing their own chief executives and local boards, and having them replaced by a broader advisory board.

On Saturday, medical professionals, councillors and community members will hold a rally to fight any attempted amalgamation of the Mansfield District Hospital. Mayor Steve Rabie has called on residents to “take a stand against any proposed amalgamation”.

“We don’t want to be swallowed up into a large network of hospitals that have no relevancy here to our local community,” Rabie said in a statement.

“As a community, we need to come together and stand with our local health providers and say ‘hands off our hospital’.”

In the town of Yea, 80 kilometres west of Mansfield, nurses and hospital staff from the Yea and District Memorial Hospital have penned an open letter to the government expressing concerns about the amalgamations and the hospital’s budget.

It claims the current funding provided by the state government is only enough to cover “wages and basic expenses such as food and medicines” but has left the hospital unable to replace vital equipment or recruit more staff.

Asked about the action from regional communities on Wednesday, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas accused the opposition of being behind the anti-amalgamation rallies and stoking fear.

“What we are seeing is a concerted, pre-emptive, fearmongering campaign led by members of the Liberal and National parties, who seem to want to demonstrate to everyone that they are more interested in politics than patients,” she said.

“Our plans for the future of healthcare in this state are to ensure that we are delivering more and better care to rural and regional Victorians as close to home as possible as soon as possible.”

Thomas said no decision had been taken on amalgamations, but she had a “rural and regional bias” in the way she was addressing the changes.

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas.Credit: Penny Stephens

“As a regional Victorian myself, I know there is more than we can do to reform the way healthcare is delivered in this state,” she said.

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