News

Aged care a focus of community meeting

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 03:47:00

A community meeting in Sea Lake next month will discuss funding of aged care and acute care services provided by Mallee Track Health and Community Service.

MTHCS Chief Executive Officer Lois O’Callaghan said the meeting was in response to concerns from a group of Sea Lake residents who were worried about the level of aged care and acute care services available in the town.

A planning meeting to prepare for the community forum was held in Sea Lake on February 27th attended by community representatives, board members and the CEO. A working group was formed to collate and prepare questions that will address a range of issues, including provision of aged care, acute care services and staffing and to plan for ways in which the community can collaborate with MTHCS.

Ms O’Callaghan said the primary focus of the health service was to deliver services and programs across all communities in the catchment according to demonstrated community demand and in line with the strategic plan.

“This can be a challenge across an 18,000 square kilometre region where there is such a diversity of residents ranging from infants to the elderly.

“It’s important that people feel they can communicate their needs and if they don’t feel they are getting the services they want, we need to hear about it so that we can work with communities collaboratively.

Ms O’Callaghan said Multipurpose service funding allocations for aged care – residential and community-based services - were block funded across the catchment.  The delivery of bed-based services are impacted by factors including declining populations, viability, consumer demand and legislated staff-patient ratios.

“MTHCS is one of the major employers in the catchment, employing over 200 people. This has a strong flow-on effect to local businesses and is very much in keeping with the resilience and can-do attitudes of rural towns.

“There are still major challenges providing services in rural areas including declining populations and changes in the way people access health services.

“The issue of recruiting medical staff is also still a major challenge and MTHCS is strongly reliant on locums and agency staff to obtain the nursing and medical workforce we need. This is a significant extra expense.

Ms O’Callaghan said the funding of MTHCS as a multipurpose would be explained and the community meeting would be a good chance for members of the public to ask questions.

“One of the major benefits is that MTHCS is strongly supported by the government funders to explore viable alternatives to any gaps in services.

“MTHCS is a health service for all people of all ages and we also coordinate essential community services such as early years and social inclusion programs that support the social fabric of remote rural communities.

“One of the biggest outcomes we hope to achieve from this meeting is that the community reports that they feel they understand the funding model, our challenges, and appreciate that we are working together in the interests of the community.  MTHCS will continue to be responsive to the community’s needs – across the whole catchment.” she added.

The community meeting will be held at the Sea Lake Community Centre on April 3 with registration at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.