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Country Victoria the Big Loser in Hospital Board Appointments
Rural Victorians could be missing out on the same quality health care as their metropolitan counterparts as a result of State Government insistence on barring medical practitioners from Hospital Boards.
Preliminary results of a sample survey conducted by AMA Victoria have indicated that at least 78% of hospitals contacted in rural Victoria either have no medical practitioner on their board or stand to lose a medical practitioner from board service in the forthcoming year.
A staggering 68% of these hospitals cited the State Government’s inflexible conflict of interest policy as the primary reason that no doctor was to serve on their Boards beyond 2004.
Hospitals adversely affected by State Government Policy include Nathalia, Edenhope, Echuca, Mansfield, Horsham, Cohuna, Wodonga and Wonthaggi amongst an ever growing list.
In some towns doctors with over 25 years of Board experience have been kicked off the Board as a consequence of the State Government policy.
In one particular rural town 3 members of an 8 person Board are facing the axe this year.
Sources from the Hospital in question claim the loss of such extensive expertise will have a dramatic effect on the successful provision of healthcare in the area, making it near impossible to attract doctors to work in the town.
AMA President Dr Sam Lees, said initial survey results showed an alarming trend of discrimination against rural areas when it came to development of health care policy in this State.
“It is about time this Government recognised the imperative of maintaining practical and sustainable health care policies for all Victorians.”
“The current restriction does a great disservice to the reality that rural, regional and metropolitan Victoria all have different and specialised needs and should be catered for accordingly. This Government must demonstrate a real commitment to the health needs of those who live in rural electorates”
“We are constantly being told by rural hospital staff, and I’m not just talking about doctors, how important it is to have medical representation on the Board and it is about time the State Government sat up and listened.”
AMA Victoria Vice-President Dr Mark Yates said it was ludicrous to try and get doctors to work in country areas and then expect them to stay when they were not allowed to participate on hospital Boards.
“We are constantly bemoaning the rural workforce shortage but the State Government seems to subscribe to an outdated policy that says once the doctors are in an area of need they can’t actually participate in the governance of the hospital.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to realise that the current situation simply doesn’t make sense, is discriminatory and deskills rural hospital services.” said Dr Yates.
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