EXAMINER STORY 28/11/07

28 November 2007
Urgent talks on LGH - Launceston council to meet Premier, Health Minister
By DANIELLE BLEWETT

THE DIRE budget position of Launceston General Hospital has prompted Premier Paul Lennon and Health Minister Lara Giddings to agree to meet Launceston City Council Mayor Albert van Zetten in Hobart next week.
Ald. van Zetten, the council's general manager Frank Dixon and Deputy Mayor Rosemary Armitage will attend the meeting. ................

The Editor, Examiner, Launceston.

Dear Editor,

Wasn't one of Mr Lennon's election promises that his government would commit to the safe nurse per patient model? For the State Government to offer 3.25 conditional on the removal of the safe staffing benchmarks in the nurses' current EBA is nothing short of disgraceful.

As ANF Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis says, the nurses' industrial action is more about keeping safe nurse to patient ratios in the EBA than money. Shorter patient stays meant patients recovered at home, rather than languishing in hospital, but they require a higher level of nursing care.

Our nurses, like our doctors and other hospital staff, work tirelessly to ensure that all patients in our hospitals receive the best possible care, but there comes a time when nurses realise to continue with the current conditions, when some are working 17 hours straight, often in acute care areas, is simply not safe.

Every day the nurses are being made out to be the bad guys in all this with "nurses vote to close one in five beds" and "nurses vote for more bans", but let's put the blame where it fairly rests - the State Government - not the nurses.

Health Minister Lara Giddings maintains the pay offer is fair - I also recall hearing her saying "not one cent from the sale of the Mersey Hospital would go south".

Please Mr. Lennon, Ms. Giddings and Mr. Aird, have the courage to admit when you have made a mistake, think of the health of the people of Tasmania and honour your commitment. If you actually looked at the elective surgery cases being turned away and other patients being refused beds, as real people and took the time to meet them and hear their stories, I am sure even the hardest heart would melt and that you would provide our hardworking nurses with the pay and conditions they so justly deserve.

Yours sincerely,

Rosemary Armitage

Please use the comments section attached to make your comments and/or alert readers to new information.

MISSING AND INACTION

It is devastating for the health and well being of the people of Northern Tasmania and the moral of LGH staff, that yet another highly skilled professional in Professor Rob Fassett, Director of Medicine is leaving the LGH.

Professor Fassett cannot be readily replaced and he has worked tirelessly to retain and regain services at the LGH. The hospital has been dealt a very severe blow and while our State Government continue to say they have no intention of downgrading, the results are exactly that.

While positions such as Oncologist and other medical staff can be advertised, who in their right mind would accept an appointment at a hospital with such an uncertain future as the LGH. Mr. Aird stated on the 24th September that the LGH is a non negotiable cornerstone of Tasmania’s public hospital system and that it will remain so long into the future. Perhaps his Cabinet needs reminding of this.

One wonders if this latest blow is the Government’s way of deflecting attention away from the nurses’ industrial action? When in fact all the nurses are doing is working to rule and refusing to perform extended overtime that would endanger patient safety.

Our local members Jim Cox, Michelle O’Byrne and Michael Polley cannot remain silent any longer. They must now stand up and be counted for the people who elected them. This hospital is crucial to the whole State, whether Hobart bureaucrats believe it or not. It is without question the best performing hospital in Tasmania and has a greater amount of referrals than other Tasmanian Hospitals, and irrespective of the views of some, the LGH is and must remain a major provider of tertiary services.

On Sunday afternoon, 2nd December, 2007 in Launceston City Park, the LGH Support Group will be facilitating an “Appeal for the LGH” with well known artists Jon & Col providing entertainment. Medical Practitioners and others will also be provided with an opportunity to address those present.

Rosemary Armitage
Chairman – LGH Support Group

Please use the comments section attached to make your comments and/or alert readers to new information.

PETITION

PLEASE GO TO THE LINKS SECTION TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FORM
Currently there is a petition being circulated in support of the LGH. The petition aims to demonstrate people’s concern for the “serious financial plight of the Launceston General Hospital and the health and welfare of the people of the North, North east and North West of the State of Tasmania, in that many hospital beds are closed along with an Operating Theatre causing long term pain and suffering in the Community along with the threat of further bed closures.”

It is now available for download vis this site and it will be available for signature at the LGH APPEAL with Jon & Col Sunday Dec 2 at City Park. It is currently in various places, including Launceston Council’s service desk at Town Hall and LGH supporters are encouraged to sign the petition and ideally collect signatures as well.

The LGH Support Group would appreciate people printing out OR collecting copies of the blank forms from Town Hall so that they can take them away and collect signatures. Please return completed forms to Ray Marsh, 68 Gleadow St Invermay 7248 or Ald. Rosemary Armitage, Launceston City Council by 29th February, 2008 at the latest.

Please use the comments section attached to make your comments and/or alert readers to new information.

The LGH Support Group

In the near future the LGH Support Group will be opening an account with “B&E, (the account should be opened next week) run by Rotary South, with 2 senior medical clinicians as signatories.

It will be at the discretion of the doctors as to how best to use the money raised. (It will be spent within our LGH)

The LGH Support Group is not a fund raising group. It is quite simply a means to bring continual attention to the LGH. To that end we would hope that donations can be made through B&E to the appeal following our concert in the park and help the hospital in some small way.

Watch this space, and the comments section attached, for more information!

Rosemary Armitage
Chairman, LGH Support Group

Please use the COMMENTS facility attached to this item to post news items and make comments relevant to supporting the LGH.

There will be an “Appeal for the LGH” in Launceston City Park on Sunday the 2nd December 2007.
Commencing at 3.30 p.m., the crowd will be entertained by well known entertainers “Jon and Col”, who have generously donated their time. Medical practitioners and others will be given the opportunity to address the gathering.

While there will be no entry fee, donations can be made to the LGH Appeal – to assist the LGH, monies distributed at the discretion of senior clinicians.

As a community we must continue to DEMAND a fully funded, fully staffed and equipped Hospital for Northern Tasmania and we cannot allow further downgrading of OUR hospital.

We encourage the community to bring a blanket and picnic, come along and support OUR wonderful hospital and its staff on Sunday afternoon, 2nd December.

Rosemary Armitage
Chairman, LGH Support Group

Please use the comments section attached to make your comments and/or alert readers to new information.