Exercise in hypocrisy

IT IS with an increasing sense of frustration that the Save Healesville Hospital Action Group (SHHAG) has made the decision to withdraw our representative from Eastern Health’s Healesville Redevelopment Liaison Group.
This group is an exercise in hypocrisy designed to give the appearance of community involvement in the redevelopment of the health services Healesville when, in fact, it appears to be a rubber stamp group for Eastern Health’s plans.
While community members may see glossy portrayals by Eastern Health of the redevelopment of the new hospital facilities, this does not in any way ensure that we will actually get the services that the community wants from these buildings.
Our meeting with Health Minister Jill Hennessy turned out to actually be with one of the advisors from her office, so we respectfully declined to attend.
The minister needs to know that representation on this group does NOT mean that Eastern Health is listening to our community as she has been led to believe.
We are still waiting for an appointment time to see the minister to bring the community’s concerns to her attention.
A community email campaign to draw her attention to our need for an interview with her may well bring this to her attention more forcefully and expedite an appointment.
This is your community, and your community’s needs we are trying to meet.
Fiona McAllister,
SHHAG.