www.SAVEOURCOUNTRYHOSPITALS.com

Welcome to ‘Save our country hospitals.com’ This web site was created to provide a central place where you can find information about what is happening in the various rural communities fighting the downgrading of South Australia’s rural health services.

If country hospitals are downgraded to a level where they are no longer able to admit acute care patients, where will these people go? How long will it take, and at what cost to their health and hip pocket?

The cost goes beyond patient care. We may lose our doctors and nurses – they need and want to work locally and apply the skills they have developed over the years. Rural medicine is a specialty in its own right and we need to keep these skills within rural communities - once gone it will be nigh on impossible to recruit replacement doctors.

Will we get more ambulances and where will we source more paid or volunteer staff to cope with the greater pressure on this service. The ambulance service is already having trouble getting enough volunteers. Knowing that long distance trips will be dramatically increased it will make even more difficult to recruit new volunteers.

City and suburban hospitals can’t cope with current patient loads, how are they going to handle the extra patient load transferred from country areas? We would guess by having longer waiting times and longer patient lists.

The Country Health plan will also have enormous long term negative economic impacts on rural communities.

Please send information about public meetings that are being held in your area, so we can we can help get that information out to all communities via the website and support your event.

This is not just a local issue but a whole state issue. It has major implications for communities affected now, those who may be targeted next and the long term sustainability of health services and country communities well into the future.

Your support is crucial. I urge anyone who is concerned about the reduction of country health services to sign the online petition and send an email protesting against the Country Health Plan (click on the ‘Resources’ button for email addresses of State Parliamentarians, Councillors and media outlets).

For further information contact:

Elizabeth Calvert at calvert.e@e-wize.com.au

Thank You For Your Support