The quickfire consultation regarding the potential amalgamation of Eastern Health (EH) and Alexandra District Health (ADH) continued with a visit to Yarra Glen and Healesville.
Two ‘Tea Talk’ sessions were designated for the Yarra Valley towns, the only ones included in the consultation that are currently run by EH, ahead of a final business case being prepared for the merger.
Chief executives Jane Poxon (ADH) and David Plunkett (EH), ADH Board Director Alan Studley and other staff attended the session in Healesville on Wednesday 19 November, with three members of the community also present.
The same survey has been made available to staff at both organisations and community members to provide their feedback, which is largely focused on assessing the importance of different health services and needs rather than thoughts on the merger itself.
A ‘Community Frenquently Asked Questions’ section also answers a number of community queries on the Connecting Care website.
ADH representatives argued an amalgamation would improve and enhance their current services, improve and increase their access to specialists, allow more career development for staff, improve their long-term financial sustainability and make better use of their existing facilities, with only six of their 25 beds in use.
The likely benefits for EH are largely being able to tap into ADH’s unused or underused facilities, accessing the block-based funding that is available for small rural health services rather than activity-based funding (based on the volume of services provided) for metropolitan areas, enhanced opportunities for health services research and improved staff choice, especially given the incentivies available for health professionals to work in regional areas.
EH and ADH have an existing relationship, operating a joint oncology unit and working together on a nurse graduate program.
If the merger is approved by both boards, a new entity would be formed, but is likely to be reflect the current form of EH, and a new board would be elected. There is no guarantee that a local representative for Alexandra would be elected, unless it was deemed that their skills and expertise was most appropriate for a board position.
Healesville resident Jane Judd, who previously worked for both organisations, said she felt the representatives of both organisations were very open, candid and willing to answer their questions.
“The fact that it is a voluntary merger and the fact that both boards have to agree that there is a benefit is good but defining that benefit was what was important,” she said.
“So for me it was more about clinical services, less management and a demonstration that there were economic benefits but that the communities were being respected in terms of their individual needs for services.”
During the meeting, Ms Judd pressed representatives on whether there was opportunities for co-location of specialists and other services between Healesville Hosipital and Alexandra District Hospital, whether the financial benefits of the merger would be going into administration spending rather than on improving access to clinical services, whether funding for rural health services would be lost at Alexandra as a result of the merger, how the history of Alexandra District Health would be preserved and reassurance that issues that previously plagued both organisations at management level were not repeated.
Ms Judd said she emphasised the importance of respecting the history of all that went before it, because that was what they could have done better in Healesville.
“Eastern Health is a very large organisation, we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars compared to 20 million for Alex (Alexandra) so they’re as different as chalk and cheese, but they have actively gone slowly,” she said.
“Eastern Health has invited Alex to offer opportunities for rural placement for nurses, and that’s gone down really well over a period of about eight or nine years and they have actively gone to the board to find out what the issues are, so that’s positive, that they are not going in blind.
“I got the impression that they learnt from their experience here with the response of the community and I think they’ve gone slowly, no one can say they haven’t had an opportunity to attend and contribute and that’s really good as that’s not how it was here.”
During the meeting, representatives of ADH acknowledged that there had been a ‘mixed response’ from their community who want to ensure ‘autonomy and local voice’ especially after trust had previously been eroded in the board in previous years. They stressed that the new board had an ‘understanding of recent historical events’ but had done work to ‘repair issues and relationships’.
Former nurse Heather Storen attended and said she thinks the merger won’t affect Yarra Ranges residents as much.
“But it was nice to hear what was going to happen, I came in at the end of Healesville here and was just worried about seeing what happened here may again happen up there,” she said.
“They are further away from the city than we are… it has to be for Alex’s benefit.”
Another community attendee expressed frustration with the current administrative delays faced when dealing with EH already, had concerns about how EH would represent the needs of people in Alexandra when the organisation is based in Box Hill and feared the ‘distance and disconnect’ would affect the services offered to the locals.
