They are angry at many recent announcements in relation to local health services.

Following quickly on the announcement by the State Government to privatise Goulburn Base Hospital came the sudden decision to also close the Bourke Street Health Service.

Sources say it could close as early as February next year. 

These services include oncology, palliative care, the hydrotherapy pool, the Giles Court dementia unit, the brain injury unit, long stay complex patients, patients awaiting placement, and the Aged Care and Assessment Team.

This rash decision is causing much concern in the community: not only to patients, but also staff and citizens.

They are concerned that this move is ill-conceived and that the NSW Southern Health District is planning onthe run without enough information or any consultation.

In today’s Goulburn Post, oncology patient Fran Croft takes the State Government to task by asking some pertinent questions.

“Where will the services currently based at Bourke Street fit into the Goulburn Base Hospital?” she asks.

“Why move it now? What is the rush, especially when the Base Hospital will not be re-developed for another five years. Where are the plans? What consultation has been carried out? Where is the funding coming from?”

All great questions; all without any answers. The Post put similar questions to health district chief executive Janet Compton on September 22.

The Goulburn Post also received a great letter from an insider, who did not wish to be identified for fear of retribution (what does that say about the culture of the place?) 

This letter states there are six beds not open in the new rehab ward and eight beds closed elsewhere in the hospital. It goes on to say Bourke Street has a 21-bed Marian Unit and a capacity to take 32 patients, so the maths do not add up. Where is the capacity to take these extra patients at the Base?

The letter also states that these many of these patients are palliative. The extra space in the rooms at Bourke Street allows for relatives of the dying to stay near them during their last days. Where will this happen at the Base: in the corridor, as a trolley with another sick or dying patient bangs into them?