It is interesting how we all see things from different perspectives depending on our job description. The Southern NSW Local Health District says nursing staff numbers at SERH can be increased  to meet demands, to ensure the community receive appropriate and timely care. Well from the NSWNMA viewpoint we would like to to point out a  few differences.

Firstly we would like to thank SERH's management team for the increased staffing within the emergency department. They presented the case to the local health district, which has now provided the hospital with the funding to have more staff working on every shift in emergency from December 26 to January 29 – fabulous outcome.

However, just to set a few things straight the two main wards, medical and surgical, are staffed and funded to have 24 patients. But we have 28 beds in medical and 30 in surgical, so if these beds are needed they need to find staff to support the extra beds. As we have a very small casual pool it will be existing staff who will need to pick up extra shifts or work overtime. So again the stress of extra work falls on the ward nurses.

The minister said they are recruiting more  medical and clinical staff. However, the LHD is slow to recruit and offers contracts so finding all the extra nursing staff needed to support us over the Christmas period will certainly be a challenge. We hope this summer runs smoothly and from his visit we can only hope for that funding to bed capacity is on his agenda.

To Bega council thank you for your reply, however it was exactly the reply I expected.

You have stated that older water meters are proven to register less. Which is a very broad bow to draw. It infers that all old meters are faulty, but I am not being supplied with any proof that my older meter was faulty.

Then I am invited to spend $405 of my money to test your new meters when you in fact never tested the old one to see if it was faulty before replacing it.

All this is very similar to the problems I had in Sydney when they installed smart meters. After I wrote these letters publicly my next lot of electricity bills were much lower? I am beginning to think all these new water meters are a council money-raising thing.

I would be really interested to see how much over a couple of years the council collected for the whole shire from older water meters and what they have raised with the new meters.

When you attend a hospital you are given a diagnosis and proof before they operate and asked whether that is what you want. Not operated on and given the diagnosis later.

I understand council is considering rebuilding the Wallaga Lake walkway which leads to no where. It’s not necessary and unsightly in such a beautiful area.

People can walk on the sand, at this time the lake is closed and water high so walking around is a little more difficult. The original walkway almost floated away around 10 years ago, the supporting posts were pushed back into the sand with a machine.

I would like to see the money spent on the roads especially the Cobargo/Bermagui T-intersection, there have been many serious accidents and many close calls at this point. A roundabout would be the answer, this has to be one of the most dangerous intersections in the area.

From a concerned Wallaga Lake resident.