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Informing the community

Posted By Ranger

"Informing the community"

About: North Midlands Health Service / Emergency Department

(as a service user),

Immersive Reader

Heard that the hospital might be closing. This horrified me as I have been to the ED personally and would certainly have been concerned about travelling an extra 60km to another hospital. It seems our ambulance service covers as far south as Coorow. I believe it would certainly be an extremely frightening time in an ambulance if you had to travel 110 km with a life-threatening problem (50kms would be scary enough). On the community side, ours is an aging community with people buying homes here comfortable with the knowledge that there is a hospital close by.

I wonder why the decision to move staff and patients around 60km away can apparently be made without informing the community.

I question how you would feel if you turned up at an ED to find it was closed and you had to drive around 60kms to the next one.

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Responses

Response from Di Franklin, Director Strategy and Change, Midwest, WA Country Health Service Midwest 3 years ago
Di Franklin
Director Strategy and Change, Midwest,
WA Country Health Service Midwest

Submitted on 11/02/2022 at 6:50 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 14/02/2022 at 9:43 AM

Immersive Reader
picture of Di Franklin

Dear Ranger,

Thank you for advocating for your community and sharing your concerns on Care Opinion.

I want to firstly assure you and the community that the provision of safe clinical care is a priority for the WA Country Health Service (WACHS) and to reassure you there are no changes at the North Midlands Health Service. The emergency services are open 24 hours a day and a decision has not been made to transfer residents to Morawa. I sincerely apologise for any concern this situation has caused you and people in the community.

Across all WACHS sites, we continue to plan and prepare in response to the COVID pandemic, which involves being responsive to the impact that workforce shortages are having across our nation. As we know, the pandemic environment is dynamic and constantly changing and, therefore, plans also remain dynamic and subject to change. I want to assure you and the community that we will absolutely communicate in event of substantial changes to the services we provide.

If you would like to speak with me, I would be very happy to personally discuss your concerns. You can call me on 9956 2268 or, if you prefer, I would be happy to meet with you on my next visit to North Midlands Health Service.

Once again, thank you for sharing your story on Care Opinion and I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Di Franklin

Acting Operations Manager

Midwest Murchison

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