Rehab distress is continuing

It is interesting that local member Marie Andrews is belatedly calling for State Government attention to the dire state of hospital services on the Woy Woy Peninsula as elections approach.

The pre-emptive closure of the the Woy Woy Rehab Unit is causing extreme and ongoing distress to many people in both Gosford and Woy Woy as there is no local rehab faciltity. The facility was closed on the advice of medical staff without consultation with the wider community, now badly affected by the lack of ready access to facilities, and the doctor primarily responsible for the recommendation now works at Brisbane Water Private Hospital.

It is absurd that both Gosford and Woy Woy areas should be without rehab and the substitution of other health services and turning Woy Woy Hospital into health care outreach offices will not substitute for necessary services in rehab.

The local community is resolute about this as they are about handing services over to Brisbane Waters Private which is unacceptable.

The Peninsula has long fought for the establishment of Woy Woy Hospital and will not accept its dissolution.

The rehab closure came less than two years after a Health Department recommendation that both Woy Woy and Wyong units needed to be upgraded in size.

This report recognised the large population of elderly people on the Peninsula.

Instead, to lower costs, one service was shut entirely.

The combining of services at Wyong has been an unmitigated disaster, with rehab beds unavailable at Wyong since they are being used to accommodate other shortages of beds there, backups of patients at Gosford unable to be transferred and of services and the government trying to keep a lid on the situation by repression of comment by staff who are distressed by what is happening.

Even for those able to get access, lack of available transport for family to visit is a great hardship and causing a lot of distress.

Nothing short of reintroducing and expanding the rehab services at Woy Woy hospital will suffice or be acceptable to the community.

Email, 1 Jun 2010 Kay Williams, Pearl Beach