Fears of Victorian hospital amalgamations as thousands rally to fight threat

Communities across Victoria are preparing to fight mooted hospital amalgamations, with a rally in the high country town of Mansfield attracting more than 2000 people on Saturday.

Mansfield GP Will Twycross addressing more than 2000 locals at a rally over the weekend to save the town's hospital from amalgamation. Picture: Sandra Lee

Communities all over Victoria fear their hospitals will be amalgamated and services cut, after a state government-commissioned report recommended 76 health services statewide become 12.

While the cash-strapped Allan government remains tight-lipped about its plans, 20 Victorian health services were told last week their budgets would be cut by up to 30 per cent in the next financial year, and hospital mergers are being considered as part of a range of options recommended in a report by an advisory board led by former Bendigo Labor MP Bob Cameron.

Communities around the state are alarmed and preparing to fight any amalgamations, with a rally in the high country town of Mansfield, in Victoria’s northeast, attracting more than 2000 people on Saturday.

The town has had its own hospital board for 153 years, and its population has never been higher, with young families and retirees moving to the area in large numbers in recent years.

Will Twycross, a GP, obstetrician, gynaecologist and anaesthetist who co-owns one of its two GP clinics and has worked in the town for 35 years, said none of the arguments for amalgamating the Mansfield Hospital with Goulburn Valley Health in Shepparton, 120km away, “hold up against any sort of scrutiny”.

He said that far from being a cost-saving measure, an amalgamated system would “lose money” through inefficient layers of bureaucracy, extra travel and lost autonomy.

“The only way it could save money is by cutting services,” Dr Twycross said.

“One of the things that they would almost certainly cut is the managers of quality control at an executive level, and managers of education at an executive level. Without those things locally … it’s going to lead to a deterioration in the standard of care.

“Our hospital has long been supported by volunteerism and community fundraising, and we’re really worried that a disconnection of governance will sever the tight links between the hospital and the community.”

Dr Twycross said the Mansfield medical community was particularly concerned about the loss of maternity and aged-care services, with the closure of obstetrics services in Healesville, Seymour, Yea and Alexandra in recent years meaning there are now no maternity services between Mansfield and Melbourne.

Fellow GP, obstetrician, anaesthetist and rural generalist Graham Slaney, who runs the town’s other GP clinic and has worked in Mansfield for 27 years, said he feared a hospital amalgamation would result in the loss of a skilled medical workforce in rural communities across Victoria.

“My biggest concern is that we’re going to lose that generation of doctors if there’s no service for them to provide the care in,” Dr Slaney said.

Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Proponents of amalgamations have pointed to the fact NSW has operated its hospitals under 15 “local health districts” statewide since 2011. However, a 2022 NSW parliamentary inquiry found the state’s system was “in crisis and failing residents of rural, regional and remote areas”, with chronic staff shortages and under-resourcing leading to “inferior” outcomes in the regions, and a “culture of fear” preventing critics from speaking out.

A 2015 report commissioned by Victoria’s health department under the current Labor government found the health system was performing well compared with other states, because it was underpinned by a “well-understood governance model that gives the boards running health services at a local level considerable autonomy”.

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas accused the state opposition of running a “concerted, pre-emptive and misleading scare campaign”.

“The work we are undertaking is focused on improving our regional and metro hospitals to deliver better, safer care closer to home for all Victorians, and nothing less,” Ms Thomas said, avoiding ruling out amalgamations, but pledging: “There will be no hospital closures under my watch.”

“While the independent committee has completed its work, the process to review our health system — which has seen no structural change in 20 years — is not (complete), and no decisions have been made,” she said.