By Ian Jamieson
ROSEBERY — Under the whip of a declining health budget, rural and regional hospitals in Tasmania are facing closure or a severe curtailing of services.
The latest casualty is a 70-year-old hospital in St Marys on the east coast. Despite vigorous opposition from the community, state health minister Peter McKay has declared that the hospital will be downgraded to a medical centre and services transferred to St Helens.
St Marys hospital serves the coal mining, agricultural and forestry community and is an integral part of the region's life. Part of its current function is the respite care of the aged who have long-established roots in the area and who now face transfer against their wishes.
The cuts of the Liberal government, and the previous Labor administration, have affected every rural facility. The services and specialist care of the larger regional hospitals in Burnie, Devonport and Launceston are also being transferred to Hobart.
These moves have triggered an angry response from the health unions, which are concerned that nurses and ancillary staff will face the sack or loss of conditions.
McKay is seeking to replace rural hospitals with either a medical centre, which will function as a mere transfer station, or a scheme in which patients receive treatment in the home.
Both schemes are simply based on economic factors, not on adequate care. The advantages of recovering within reach of the patient's community, specific needs such as immediate access to hospital for industrial accidents and isolation are not considered by axe-wielding politicians.
As well as wanting to privatise lucrative aspects of health care, the Tasmanian government is also willing to palm off administration to private operators or non-government organisations.
One of the first hospitals the government sought to close was the Rosebery Hospital on the west coast. Although it serves a community of nearly 4000 which is isolated in winter months and acts as a hospital for four major mines, Labor and Liberal have sought to close its doors for many years.
After many vigorous public campaigns, a stay of execution has been won. However, the community has been forced to accept that the day-to-day running of the hospital pass to the West Coast Council.
This opens the opportunity for the staff, patients and the community to run the hospital efficiently and according to the real needs of the area, but the state government still holds the purse strings.
As a result, some staffing rearrangements have been forced on the nurses. In negotiations, the government was intent on forcing nurses out of the public health system, resulting in loss of redundancy entitlements.
While the retention of the hospital is seen as a victory and the majority of nurses came into the new arrangement with the council, the model McKay was seeking for other rural hospitals is no way forward for rural Tasmanians.