The more the layers are peeled back revealing the mounting failure in delivery of a local health system by the powers that be the more concerning it is becoming that what remains will reach a breaking point.
All we need is a catalyst such as an increased demand.
Maybe something like Christmas and the annual influx of tens of thousands of visitors might do the trick.
During the recent Open the Door at level Four rally in Moruya it was revealed that the neonatal provisions in the Eurobodalla were basic at best. While the two hundred or more were being told that the situation now presented a high risk the relevant authorities have failed to advise us as to why it has been allowed and how it came to be. Nor have they offered any assurities that there is an immediate call to action to remove the risk and to deliver a service that is better than "mediocre".
It is understood that in recent weeks and months there have been several resignations of key personnel from our hospital system. It is also well known that our hospitals are understaffed and overworked resulting in low morale while unfilled positions, vacated for months, remain unfilled, resulting in roster gaps requiring already hard-pressed staff to take on even more extended shifts.
While hospital staff are sworn to secrecy and unable to reveal the mounting shortfalls nor express their concerns their union representatives are beginning to voice their concerns that the inevitable summer demands on our Emergency Departments will see already under resourced and overly stressed staff and clinicians pushed beyond their capacities.
The dramatic increase in our population due to Metropolitan Covid Exodus has brought with it the need for more an more health providers. Our local surgeries had closed their books to new patients. Our local mental health sector was already pushed to the limit due to the bushfires and the addition of Covid, social isolation and financial insecurity only added to the weight.
With nowhere to go we are seeing more and more mental health cases appearing at our already stressed emergency departments where, if the timing allows, offers a temporary treatment.
But all of this is an Elephant in the Room as the mute health authorities now appear to be cowering behind the mounting revelations that the regional and rural health services of NSW have been mismanaged, under resourced and underfunded to the point of near failure.
The advice appears to be "If you are coming to Eurobodalla try not to get sick because if you do you will be able to experience first hand the sub-optimal health service that is being offered by a NSW Health bureaucracy that has failed to recognise that demand has outstripped supply, and that they have well and truly dropped the ball in delivering local outcomes and now fail the dedicated passionate workforce that goes above and beyond to deliver health outcomes for their community."
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