Urgent action needed

IN June 2013, Barwon Health’s then-chief executive David Ashbridge spoke of the “desperate need” for better health care in Geelong’s northern suburbs.

Announcing the organisation’s vision for a health facility offering 24-hour urgent care, Mr Ashbridge said at the time a third of all Geelong Hospital inpatient admissions came from the northern suburbs and the emergency department was being clogged by cases from the Corio-Norlane area.

When the State Government announced $28 million in funding in May 2014, thenPremier Denis Napthine said the Barwon Health North facility would take the pressure off Geelong Hospital. Health Minister David Davis said the funding was designed to address the clear need for urgent care services in Geelong’s north.

More than three years later and the people of our northern suburbs are still waiting — for the health facilities they were promised, and for answers.

Plans surrounding Barwon Health North remain frustratingly vague. There have been persistent questions surrounding the exact facilities that will be on offer and rumours that some key selling points may not eventuate.

Today we can reveal that a confidential report deemed the Urgent Care Centre — touted as the facility most likely to relieve Geelong hospital’s emergency department — as inappropriate for the area more than a year ago. Unless a conflicting report was commissioned and completed before work started on the health facility late last year, it would appear the Urgent Care Centre will not be there when Barwon Health North finally opens in 2019.

And still the State Government refuses to confirm or deny the status of the centre. When are they planning to do so — on opening day when the public notice there’s no emergency care service?

Plans can change on any major project. But the least the authorities should do is keep the public informed along the way.

In this case the silence is deafening — and insulting to the people who need it the most.