Hello and welcome to the blog, and a continuation of yesterday's discussion re Health Service issues...but first some other stuff quickly...
SkyTowers Mt Gambier Pty Ltd: remain a bit of an enigma. Former co-owners of the currently under demolition Old Mt Gambier Hospital with Damien Boots (or he's a 'member' of Sky Towers, whatevs)... SkyTowers is dissolved, demised, deceased, departed...it is an ex-company...as of late 2011 when it was placed into Receivership with receivers Ferrier Hodgson with a 'De-registration Action' initiated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in August 2012.
I tried to get more specific official information but after trawling around the Interweb several times...(and even getting your child to help to avoid the 'old man who can't use a search engine properly' issues-Ed)...indeed...I (we) managed to find nothing specific about SkyTowers at all...and if one wants more information from ASIC, one has to pay for it apparently...(the deuce you say-Ed)...so I'll have to have another go at that and re-post.
Observation: where the hell is my life headed that I feel the need to subscribe to ASIC?
Dreadlock Holiday: as Australia goes 4-nil up in the Ashes cricket series against England...(it's the song that goes 'I don't like cricketah, oh no, I love itah, oh yeah-Ed)...oh yeah.
Straight Off The Bat: I'd like to repeat my call for the Liberal Party to announce a most extravagant funding boost for the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme via their various Regional candidates, of which Mr Troy Bell is one...not least of all because patients have to sometimes travel to Adelaide, etc, just for basic health checks, eg, an MRI scan...and also not least of all because...
Breast Surgery Cancelled: at the Mt Gambier Hospital after only 7 months, ie, provision of surgical services for treating Breast Cancer that only started in December 2012 have ceased since July 2013. This was reported in The Border Watch Friday 17th December 2013, but I was not aware of any other reports about this closure...I apologise if I have missed it, but the article itself seems to infer that Country Health SA have been less than forthcoming with information.
The article states that surgeon Mr Bill McLeay does monthly surgeries at Naracoorte and Millicent, but that other patients will need to travel to Adelaide...Mr McLeay is also involved with other clinics, so his time must be limited...it is genuinely fantastic to hear about his commitment to South East patients, but is obviously an extremely fraught situation given the problems with recruiting specialists for Regional areas.
I could only hazard a guess as to how many people will be forced to travel to Adelaide for surgery, but going on figures in the media, that would be maybe 2 dozen patients...whatevs, one is too many...and it reinforces the need for patient support that actually supports patients rather than being a problem itself...
This closure or withdrawal of service follows the recent good news of the appointment of a 'Breast Cancer Nurse' to Mt Gambier, but I am not aware whether this position is in addition to the current 'Breast Care Nurse' at the hospital, or a replacement for that vacated position, or a re-shuffling of the same position with a different name...sorry, but this sort of info can be really hard to pin down...I'll check and post.
New Ambulance Station: Again, I don't know why you would place your new (5 years ago) Fire Station and now new Ambulance Station right opposite each other right alongside the Rail Easement at a Rail Crossing in the middle of town...there are multiple examples of train derailments in circumstances involving collisions at crossings, not least of all in towns, so why would you put your emergency services in such a problematic and potentially vulnerable position?
Similar criticisms have been leveled at the positioning of the Flinders Medical Centre and Sturt Police Stations (in Adelaide) right on top of the earthquake fault line that runs through there...I believe that Flinders has been built to withstand major shocks, but it's still a rather average piece of planning/placement.
Construction is finally underway with the concrete slab laid, but I have no idea what has been happening there other than what I've witnessed in going past occasionally. After multiple delays and already nearly a year behind schedule, it was reported that work had ceased completely for 'soil reasons'...(was it 'compaction' or something?-Ed)...sounds familiar...work just stopped with no foreseeable re-start date.
But then work suddenly did start again with the digging of a massive 5-6ft hole right across the site, that was promptly filled with sand...(I'm no engineer or anything, but I don't understand why you need 5ft+ of sand under that building, particularly when the slab only covers about a third of the re-filled area-Ed)...what are you saying?...(well, just that this may be completely 'legit', but I wouldn't mind having shares in the company that provided those many, many tons of sand-Ed)...interesting observation.
And just to be accurate, I note that this Station is being built with federal government not state funding.
So another Sunday post draws to a close, and I'll get into more revisionary items...
Tomorrow: Things and Stuff
Here's to actually resolving at least one issue before the year is out...(but I ain't holdin' my breath-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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