Hospital forum critical

THE next step in deciding the future of Healesville Hospital, the services it loses or retains, and whether those services are delivered by Eastern Health or under a rural hospital model will be up for discussion at a public meeting on Wednesday, 27 March.
As reported in the Mail last week, there is growing support for the hospital to be reclassified and funded as a community-run rural hospital.
Save Healesville Hospital (SHH) committee chair Cr Fiona McAllister said last week the meeting was critical with state and federal sitting members saying they will attend.
More than 280 people attended a meeting with Eastern Health in October overwhelmingly rejecting, among other things, a proposal under the organisation’s draft Strategic Clinical Services Plan to shift surgical services to Lilydale.
The SHH committee subsequently met with the Board of Eastern Health.
Cr McAllister said the meeting would report back on that meeting and what has happened to date with the SHH campaign.
“Originally it was around satisfaction with the Eastern Health plan and that’s been the primary focus, but now we have this other issue of there potentially being another option of being reclassified as a rural health service,” she said.
“How do people feel about that?
“What do we want as a community; do we lobby for a rural health service,” she said, adding that it was important for everyone to understand the benefits and potential costs, risks and the commitment required.
“This will not be the last of these meetings, but we need people to come to this meeting, as they did in October … and more,”she said.
The meeting is at the Memorial Hall at 7pm on 27 March.