Straight out for hospital

THE Save Healesville Hospital Action Group (SHHAG) will set the record straight at a meeting this week to update the community on its campaign.
The meeting will be held at Healesville’s Memo Hall at 7pm on Wednesday 16 July and SHHAG chairwoman Fiona McAllister is urging members of the community to come along.
“We need to show the state government we won’t be steamrolled when the quality of our hospital is at stake,” Ms McAllister said.
SHHAG’s meeting comes after a successful fundraising campaign to have an independent business case study conducted to assess the future of the Healesville hospital.
The case study aims to review data on the hospital’s operations to determine whether it would be better run under Eastern Health or as an independent rural health service.
However, the group hit a roadblock when Health Minister David Davis announced that the government had conducted its own study which it was said determined that the hospital is best run as is.
The report has yet to be made public and SHHAG members have said they have yet to hear from the minister’s office on a promised sign-off on Eastern Health data essential to the case study.
Ms McAllister said the meeting will be an opportunity for each of the local candidates for the upcoming state election to have their say and put their views and commitments on the record.
She said that Seymour MP Cindy McLeish, Labor candidate Sally Brennan and independent Bruce Argyle have all been invited.
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/SaveHealesvilleHospital.