Looking into the crystal ball the well planned and methodical destruction of the once long standing, reputable and in the black Pambula District Hospital (PDH) continues.
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As the opening of the new hospital in Bega draws closer the scheduled revamp of PDH will look like this. There will be no Emergency Department with no doctors, only triage nurses to attend to minor injuries and illnesses. Of course the new service will be relabelled something else.
Medical Wards will be converted to 2 Palliative Care Wards and what is the purpose of the remaining 10 medical wards?.
The crystal ball also indicates ambulances will bypass PDH under direction with sick patients hopefully to make it to Bega.
PDH will no longer be a rural hospital at all. It will be similar to a medical clinic. Naturally a new label is proposed for PDH. Definitely not a hospital as we know.
Our politicians of both major parties at State and Federal levels, the out of area bureaucratic decision makers, the hand selected committees, and those paid handsomely for their services should be ashamed of their broken promises and manipulative centralisation goals.
Despite 26000 petition signatures supporting the full restoration of health delivery services at PDH, the direct handover of petition signatures on the doorsteps of the NSW State Parliament with those seeking power and now in power, huge people marches, TV advertisements, actual TV coverage, and healthy debates in both State and Federal political arenas, PDH has been created as the sacrificial lamb in order to please centralisation objectives. Of course the disappearing act of those responsible for this demolition pathway have received power, promotions and other out of area decision makers not living in our region ending up with high superannuation packages.
Where and who was involved in the lengthy community consultation meetings? Where were they held last year? Why wasn’t the wider community informed of this process?.
So again looking into the crystal ball is our Merimbula Ambulance Service still being targeted for closure in the near future by decision makers not from our region?
Is there pressure on our wonderful paramedics to make decisions to keep the casualties at home or simply transfer them to Bega?
With the majority of an ever growing population in the southern area of the Bega Valley Shire with so many outlying areas the politicians, bureaucrats, and the hand selected committees have ignored what the community supported. That’s PDH.
The crystal ball in the end is telling me. Keep healthy. Don’t get sick. Good luck.
Neil Rainbow
Pambula