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politics
SIR,
In regard to Pambula Hospital.
It is with a lot of concern that I write this letter about the deteriorating conditions at the Pambula Hospital.
I took my husband to the emergency areas at 10.45pm last week and were the first people to experience the “new system”.
God help us all.
One male nurse was on duty and after writing all the relevant history had to make a phone call to Bega Hospital, repeat all he had written down and was then told to phone Dr Simonson as he was the doctor on call.
After ringing Dr Simonson and relaying all the information again, he was advised to ring Canberra Hospital Onco-logy and after repeating all this information for the third time, was advised on the treatment with which to proceed.
One could only feel sorry for the staff in such trying conditions.
So much time was spent on the phone relaying the same message over and over again, one wonders whose brainchild this new system is.
Let some of these bureaucrats spend a few nights observing the day to day (night to night) running of this wonderful facility and maybe, just maybe, they will re-enter the real world.
There was only one attendant on duty in emergency and two other staff on the wards.
However they would have coped if an emergency has arisen, I don’t know, but I have no doubt they would have met any situation to the best of their ability. However medical staff of such reduced numbers can only do so much.
The closure of the obstetrics department was a grave error and has resulted in the loss of very valuable medical staff. This facility should be re-opened and doctors returned to their former positions.
I couldn’t let the events of our experience last week go by without so much as a word, so I would like to add my voice to each and every other person who is fighting to keep our hospital alive and well, returned to it’s former glory and continue treating patients in the manner they deserve.
This whole situation just screams politics and it is a pretty poor situation when politics interferes with the everyday running of health services.
My family has used the hospital on many occasions over the years and have always found the service to be outstanding.
I was very saddened to see first hand last week what this hospital is being reduced to.
The staff are as dedicated as ever and we are indeed fortunate to have such a wonderful facility in our area. It is up to each and everyone to voice their disgust at the attempt being made to close the hospital.
Please do not let the community suffer bec-ause of bureaucratic bungling.
Marlene Warner
Merimbula
Ladies and
gentlemen?
SIR,
Yesterday there was a segment on Today Tonight, where young unwed mothers made it very clear that they are not getting enough support from the Centrelink.
These young “ladies” have put themselves in a situation where they have to depend on government taxes for support.
We can blame them for the youth and inexperience, but what they have done is done by “consenting adults” all the time.
They have brought children into loveless relationships.
They have done it because they have been indoctrinated by a capitalist culture that tells them that having recreational sex is normal and even healthy.
Most of us are under the stupid illusion that sex involved two consenting adults.
But there is someone else involved in the act of sex that people choose to ignore and when they don’t ignore the third party, the third party, becomes a nuisance.
Having sex without considering the third party is like opening the door to your home, inviting someone in, and then slamming the door on his or her face.
It is perfectly natural for a young woman to want to reproduce when she starts menstruating.
I don’t really know if that was the intention of some of these young mothers, but that is what happens when you have sex.
Before technology hardened our hearts, and stunted our growth, it was expected for young women to be betrothed at the age of 16 if not earlier. This is natural. Techn-ology has made our culture artifical.
At this point it might be considered appropriate to say that young men are being let off the hook.
They can walk away from the life that they have conceived, and let the taxpayers raise the products of their hedonism. So the media is biting us on the backside.
“Sex is fun, indulge in it”. It does not tell us “but you will need more tax dollars to raise the children that you have accidentally conceived”.
So now we can say that our men are irresponsible.
We are breeding one of many generations of deadbeat dads.
When we see that a child is spoiled can we blame the child? The child did not spoil himself or herself.
When a child is spoiled, it is the parent who is to blame. (I can’t say that I am not preaching to myself here, as far as children are concerned).
If our men are irresponsible it is because our women have let them off the hook.
Women are brainwashed into becoming addicted to sex and then end up using men as stud service.
For men, this is a free meal.
That is what it appears to be, but others are paying for it.
When women are easy, cheap or even free, it is not doing men any favours.
Marriage is not meant as a ball-and-chain or a trap.
If you view it like this than you don’t really have any affection for the person you might consider marrying.
It is the difference between being embraced by someone you love or by someone you don’t.
The difference between devotion and service and slavery is the affection that exist in the relationship.
Marriage is a contract that is signed to protect the emotional wellbeing of all of the members of a family. When people get divorced they are inadvertently telling their children that their own sex lives are more important than their own wellbeing.
It is far more important to act as a responsible parent than a eager sex partner.
Ethel Pepper
Bega
Setting the record straight
SIR,
Responding to your comment published in the Bega News on Friday October 31, I would like to completely agree with you that we need to be united on the health front.
Unfortunately, a simple error made in the very early hours of the morning when putting the website together that you refer to, meant that a “vs” was inserted rather than an ampersand “&”.
I can understand how this would have led you to believe we are parochial southern neighbours.
The error has since been corrected.
We thankyou for bringing it to our attention and can reassure you that we are not parochial, but we are neighbours.
As such, we are not seeking to divide the Bega Valley community in any way, shape or form.
We are concerned about the very real decline in services available at the Pambula Hospital right now and what this means right now for Merimbula-Eden-Pambula and surrounding communities.
I hope that everyone who is affected by these declining services or who has a view, will not be deterred from attending the public meeting on November 13 at 6pm, Pambula Public Hall.
Sharon Tapscott
Jason Smith
Pambula Chamber of Commerce
Spin doctors
at work
SIR,
I am totally sick of the constant spin doctoring going on about the angst coming from the southern part of the community perhaps jeopardising getting a new regional hospital.
Well, if it was the other way around with the facility being proposed to be built in the Pambula/ Merimbula area and Bega’s hospital services being dismantled, wouldn’t it be, that you would hear some real dissatisfaction coming from the Bega medical fraternity and public.
The southerners are rightly disillusioned with what is going on because despite being the largest population base in the shire with the regional airport and because of what has been deliberately happening over the last few years to the Pambula hospital with its services being skeletonised.
No one is listening or seems interested from Bega or council or GSAH.
The southern doctors and I believe a lot of the community have been looking for a compromise to suit both ends, that being Wolumla as the best location for the new hospital.
They certainly have not been pushing for Merim-bula or Pambula.
The public or southerners were not consulted in the process of determining the location for the new hospital, which has not gone down well, especially when each time from the start, whenever someone questioned the location or what would happen to Pambula Hospital, the cry was always “don’t go there you’ll jeopardise the whole thing, we have to show a united front; you don’t want to risk not getting a new facility”.
What the majority of the southerners want is to have a properly functioning, like five years ago, Pambula Hospital with all our very well respected practitioners able to do their jobs properly.
If this happens then I believe most southerners would be more than happy to see the new regional hospital built in Bega.
So all you northern folk including the editor of this paper and the BVSC councillors and Mayor should be getting in and supporting the retention and reinstatement of obstetric/maternity services to the Pambula Hospital, so that we can as a united front support the development of a new regional facility for the benefit of everyone including our forgotten brothers in Mallacoota, Genoa and Wonboyn.
The next hospital to the south is Orbost which is way further away than Moruya is in the north from anywhere in our shire.
After the new facility is built is when the services at Pambula should be reviewed not five to ten years in advance of a proposed new facility that is not there until it is built.
So get on and support the cause of the retention of services to the Pambula Hospital.
Fraser Buchanan
Pambula
Great sense of insecurity
SIR,
In collaboration with the comments made in the Magnet paper 30/10 by Amy Holt who is expecting her first child in February, I too have a great sense of insecurity as I am expecting my fourth child in February.
I have lived in Pambula for the past 15 years and have had the opportunity to have the convenience and security of having a hospital nearby, also knowing and having confidence in the local doctors looking after myself and family over the years.
I have had many a sleepless night thinking of what may happen with the only facility being at Bega and the unknown of who or if there will be someone available to deliver my child safely.
I have to have cesarean sections to deliver which can be a worry on its own, without the thought of who and when scenario.
I also gave birth to my third child last year in December, thankfully the operation date fell at the same time that it was Pambula’s turn to offer maternity services, therefore having my own doctor present, and pleasant and professional staff which I had no worries or issues with to care for my needs, even though they were highly under pressure with other nurses etc being sent to Bega Hospital.
During my pregnancy last year I had a couple of scares where I was in a lot of pain and unsure of what was happening and worried of what may be happening to my unborn child.
At these times it was when Bega Hospital was on the maternity roster, and I had to find a friend who was available to take me to Bega as I was unable to drive in the condition I was in.
Once I got there, I had a student nurse take 45 minutes to take blood pressure etc, as he was having trouble working the equipment.
As you can imagine this was very scary and frustrating as I was still in a lot of pain and not getting any answers as to what was happening.
Hard to have confidence when these issues arise and especially when more unsurities seem to be cropping up as time goes on.
I have read many articles on this, a few weeks ago there was a Mothers’ group who represented the Bega Valley mothers who advised that they did not have any issues with Bega being the sole operator for obstetrics.
They obviously did not ask anyone in the Merimbula, Pambula, Eden or Mallacoota areas of their feelings, as I amongst many mothers who are expecting around the same time are feeling insecure and scared and mostly disappointed with the closure of Pambula Hospital obstetrics section let alone the loss of being able to have our own doctors there.
I find it hard to understand how they have risked the services of our local obstetric doctors and nursing staff when it is an industry crying out for qualified people in all areas.
Sheree Paterson
Pambula
Immunisation
SIR,
“Whooping cough spreads” (BDN Oct 31).
Why are people going to listen to a clerk?
I was both amused that the Health Department chose to deliver its message to Bega Valley residents via a press release from the manager Greater Southern Area Health Service.
Doesn’t the NSW Health Department employ doctors anymore?
I mean if parents aren’t going to listen to doctors’ warnings about whooping cough, why are they going to listen to a clerk?
I contracted the poliomyelitis virus in 1953.
The salvation of Salk and Sabin did not reach Australia until 1956.
If you have not vaccinated your child or children against whooping cough, then that’s your responsibility.
Keep in mind that some children die whooping.
But with the polio virus noone escapes unscathed.
I walked from the age of three until 45 on crutches and calipers until my shoulders gave up 10 years ago.
My shoulders were never designed as hips.
Now I get about in a power wheelchair and am dependent on a domestic ventilator at night.
Is this what you want for your child? (I’m in the ‘phone book if you would like to talk over vaccination with me).
Ian Dalwood
Kalaru