The Victorian Government announced recently that forced amalgamations of hospitals across the state were off the table, but this hasn’t eased the concerns of the Seymour community.
The Seymour Health Protection Group held a petition signing pop-up at Station St in Seymour on Thursday, September 5 to highlight the community’s concern.
Group member Bernadette Bell said concerned citizens only wanted to get their voices heard by the government.
“They have regrouped Seymour into a new region, which is called the Hume region, and that takes in Seymour, Shepparton, Wodonga and Albury,” she said.
“People are still talking about whether or not we should be in that region or whether or not we should be in another region, perhaps with the Melbourne hospitals, so things are up in the air.
“We decided we would have a petition, so that people could read the petition and decide if they would like to sign.”
The petition states that the recently published Health Services Plan would result in the forced amalgamation of health services in Seymour; budget cuts to healthcare may put Seymour Memorial Hospital and accompanying Allied Health Services at risk; the rural community will face more challenges if it loses acute and urgent care services; and that any amalgamation may lead to an eventual closure of the local hospital.
Ms Bell said people were signing the petition because they wanted two things.
“They want Seymour Health to stay with the services that it has now and or to improve them,” she said.
“I think that’s very good of the community to want that.
“We have a wonderful facility, and we’d like our local board to keep promoting our facility and keep the government funding it so that we can still operate that facility properly.”
She said that although the government said hospitals would retain their boards, the group was concerned about what the future might hold.
“We’re looking ahead,” Ms Bell said.
“We understand what they’ve said, or what is in that report, but we are looking ahead to what can change after they’ve said certain things.
“We just don’t want them to take away our services.
“We want the government to fund the services, and we want to keep the services going. Everyone that walks up here tells us it’s a fantastic service.”
The Telegraph put the group’s concerns to the government. A spokesperson said the government was getting on with delivering a stronger and more accessible health system that delivered the best care for all Victorians, where and when they needed it — especially rural and regional Victorians.
“We’ve made it very clear that no hospital will be forced to amalgamate through the Health Services Plan, local leadership will remain and there has been no direction to reduce, and there will be no reduction in frontline services through the formation of Local Health Service Networks,” the spokesperson said.
“As recommended by the independent expert advisory panel, these networks will bring hospitals within a geographical region together to ensure they’re able to deliver better integrated and connected care, while also better supporting staff across the region.”
Ms Bell encouraged the community that while the petition is active, and the group had the petition out in the shops, to please sign up.
“If you feel that you want to protect your Seymour health services, the petition will be ending in late September, so you’ve got a few more weeks to come and see us,” she said.