The Echo

Blue Mountains Hospital and the provision of local health services have dominated local news for some time. Despite renovations to the maternity wing and construction of a mental health unit, there has been a long struggle to attract and retain enough medical staff to operate the hospital at peak capacity, and there has been widespread concern in the community that existing services are under threat as well. These concerns are echoed by the lobby group, HEAL – Hospital Equity Access Lobby.

The HEAL group feels that mountains residents are being discriminated against because the services at the local hospital have been downgraded, and have put together a petition demanding this be recognized and addressed, to be presented to State Parliament in July.
“Nobody expects a local hospital to provide heart surgery,” said Heal Spokesperson Councillor Janet Mays. “But six years ago it was possible to have your appendix out, or a hernia fixed at Katoomba hospital. This is no longer the case. And depending on what day you come in, even people with broken bones are being sent down to Nepean.”
“HEAL sees the hospital as an essential community service.” she adds. “But when we raise these issues, we find that even the terms of the discussion have changed over the past few years. Patients are now referred to as clients, and the hospital is referred to as a business, rather than a service.”
HEAL is also concerned about local ambulance services. “We only have two full time ambulances,” said Janet Mays, “and they are spending all their time ferrying people down to Nepean. When they are out of the community, ambulances have to be called in from Lithgow.”
Local MP Phil Koperberg has been very active in his support for the hospital and the maintenance of local health services, and supports HEAL in its quest for better local services. With this in mind, he recently met with the manager of the Hospital, Andrea Williams and a senior executive from Western Sydney Health Services, and the results have been very positive.
“Accident and emergency, maternity and opthamology are all now running at full capacity,” said Mr Koperberg. “Day surgery will be increasing after the end of the school holidays.The problem has always been attracting enough staff,” he continued, “so the hospital has reclassified certain positions, and increased renumeration. We are currently in the process of recruiting more staff to re-open the five beds in the mental health unit.”
The ambulance issue is being addressed with the development of a separate patient transport system through the Western District Health Area.
Recently Mr Koperberg stepped in to prevent the closure of the Operating Theatres at Springwood Hospital. “The system is not without its problems,” he said. “There is still room for improvement. But we will keep working at it.”
You can contact HEAL by ringing 4784 1873. Phil Koperberg can be reached on 4751 3298 or email bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au.