By JESSE GRAHAM
Hospital pressure group says it feels the pressure of politics stalling case study…
A CASE study into the future of Healesville Hospital has been ‘stalled’ until after the state election according to an advocacy group, which says it requested critical information in May.
But the Health Department and Eastern Health has hit back at the group’s claims as ‘misleading’, and said it was working to release important data so the study can take place.
The Save Healesville Hospital Action Group (SHHAG) acting chairwoman Jane Judd contacted the Mail last week and said the government had not released Eastern Health’s financial data, as requested by the group in May.
Ms Judd said the data was “critical” for an independent business case study being undertaken by consultant Rita Brewerton to determine if the hospital would be better run by Eastern Health or independently.
She said that Ms Brewerton had met with Eastern Health CEO Alan Lilly on 4 September to discuss the data that was needed, with a detailed request officially delivered on 12 September.
Ms Judd said SHHAG’s aim was to have the case study finished before the election, in the hope of gaining bipartisan support for the results – whichever way they pointed.
“We’ve been trusting, and it is now clear that we cannot achieve our goal – to have the business case completed and endorsed by both parties prior to the election,” she said.
“We suspect that was part of the reason why we’ve been strung on – it’s just disrespectful stalling.
“I’m feeling like we’ve let the community down, which is a dreadful feeling.”
However Mr Lilly said SHHAG’s claims were “inaccurate and misleading,” and said that he is in personal contact with Ms Brewerton “almost weekly” to get the data released.
“Not all of the requested data is held by Eastern Health and we are now liaising with the Department of Health on this matter,” he said.
Mr Lilly said that Eastern Health had to protect confidential data before it was provided to third parties, such as SHHAG.
Health Minister David Davis agreed with Mr Lilly and said the data request was being worked through.
“The Department of Health will make contact with Brewerton and Associated to discuss how their information needs can be met while protecting patient privacy,” he said.
“As a minimum, this means that de-identified patient level data given to the consultants would need to be modified, to reduce the potential for re-identification.”
Seymour MP and Eildon candidate Cindy McLeish said she had been speaking regularly with the minister and Eastern Health on the issue.
“I understood that the process was moving along,” she said.
“(But) Because of the complexity, it’s not something that can happen really quickly,” she said.
Independent Eildon candidate and SHHAG member Bruce Argyle said he wanted the data released before the government enters its Caretaker period on 4 November, in the lead up to the 29 November election.
Mr Argyle said the Healesville Hospital would be an important election issue for Eildon, and that he supported the results of the case study.
“Whoever is elected for the Eildon electorate needs to be someone that represents the wishes of the communities here, and the community has clearly expressed that this is an important issue to them,” he said.
“The current government, for whatever reason, is not viewing this as a serious request.”
Mr Davis’s office was contacted and asked whether the data would be released before 4 November but no response was given by time of going to press.
