Bellarine Times
Tuesday 9 November 2010
VOL 3. No 45
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
FREE WEEKLY
Member for Bellarine, Lisa Neville, and Parks Victoria’s Rod Beazley joined other visitors on the historic Queenscliff Pier, which is now open to the public again after a major restoration funded by the State Government. Photo: MICHAEL CHAMBERS
HEALTHY DEBATE Greens candidate looks to raise support for her push for a hospital on the Bellarine
BY ALISON MARTIN AS THE Bellarine population increases and pressure on Geelong Hospital leaves patients waiting hours for emergency treatment and months for elective surgery – does the peninsula need its own hospital? Greens candidate for Bellarine, Judith Baldacchino, believes the answer is a resounding yes – and she is calling for community support for her campaign. “With a population in excess of 55,000 people and growing, these people need a local hospital. Not just a health service, or a 24-hour clinic, but a real hospital,” she said, revealing her personal experience on a two-year waiting list to have her tonsils removed.
Surf Forecast
“The Geelong Hospital is unable to cope with the needs of this growing area. “I have met countless people on the Bellarine making trips into Geelong or further for a service, and it taking all day or longer. “I have met many others on interminable waiting lists. “The towns of Castlemaine, Maryborough and Colac, along with many other Victorian towns, each with populations around 8,000, have their own hospitals. “The people of the Bellarine have paid taxes and are as entitled as anybody else to adequate hospital access. “This is only possible if the Bellarine gets its own hospital.” However, Bellarine Community Health chief
executive, John Fendyk, said the region needed a major Primary Community Heath Facility, which provided some sub-acute services over a 24-hour period. “While the population on the Bellarine will increase significantly over the next 10 years, we have several hospitals within a 30-minute drive across the Bellarine,” he said. “My vision for an expanded Bellarine Community Health service is such a facility, with several stakeholders as tenants to provide a diverse range of services from the one site.” Fendyk said the site of a major health facility could be between the north and south of the Bellarine, located near the Wallington area, and servicing the peninsula community.
“We have completed a Service Plan for the Bellarine, and are now looking at getting funding to complete a Master/Feasibility Plan, which should identify where services should be located, as well as the type of service required,” he said. Fendyk, who is also chair of the Ocean Grove Community Association, will call on Bellarine candidates attending tomorrow night’s pre-election community forum to address the BCH proposal. “I will be asking the candidates on the night for their visioning of such a proposal, and if they would provide some funding to complete the exercise,” he said. The forum is being organised by the Affiliation of Bellarine Community Associations and will be held at Portarlington’s Parks Hall; see Page 5 for details.
WED 1-2ft clean, W 23° THU 1-2ft small, SW 24° FRI 1-2ft tiny NE 28° SAT 1-2ft+ building SSW 14°
PAGE
111