Has anyone had experience of visiting outpatients in one of our local public hospitals lately? What were your impressions? Positive or negative? This commentary is not to in any way critique our dedicated but beleaguered, overburdened clinical staff who try to perform to the best of their capacity in a very broken system.
And the system appears very broken!
We had the unfortunate need to attend outpatients at Ballina Hospital in the last fortnight. My wife was very unwell, and was unable to find a practitioner available in private practice that day. In order to be attended to she had no choice but to attend outpatients. She walked in only to find that there was not a single chair available to sit herself on in the entire overcrowded waiting room! (You can see where I am going to with this.)
Over six hours later my wife was finally ‘permitted’ to leave when it was considered that the hospital was able to release her without any fear of liability. Whilst we were there we met a young tradesman who had been waiting almost seven hours to get his hand rebandaged. And there was also a woman who had been waiting about the same time for a doctor to write a script for her.
It is not possible for individuals to do the ‘impossible’, but this facility, trying vainly to treat the most basic of patient needs, was definitely not functioning. It was transparently inadequate, as I have suggested.
I raised the issue with the Mayor of Ballina, Sharon Cadwallader. And justifiably she replied that public hospitals were not her remit. However she declared that she had been working extremely hard on getting a new fit-for-purpose hospital for Ballina. She further declared that she had been making progress with the establishment of a steering committee, contractors engaged, and process towards a clinical services study.
And whilst all this is commendable, I later had to raise the point that Council does have direct responsibility for ensuring adequacy of infrastructure for all ratepayers.
Council will need to preside over all services and infrastructure, including roads and traffic, amenities, garbage, planning, and impact of population growth, environmental impact etc.
The most important question for Council (and Mayor Cadwallader) relates to the question as to why there is even consideration of the absurd possibility of a massive subdivision put forward by core investment partners operating out of a joint corporate office located in the prestigious suburb of Toorak, Victoria, that proposes a development within Lennox Head featuring up to 2,500 new homes, and a suggestion of over 6,000 new humans… all requiring access to our already underfunded and completely inadequate local health service alongside our current population??!!!
And ridiculously built in an area of problematic floodplain which for years has not allowed the people of Lennox Head to get themselves up the hill to the highway during heavy periods of rain and increasing flooding!
Who is pushing the buttons here? Who is pulling the levers? For the most part I doubt it is us, the community ourselves! Are you interested in just letting this ridiculous situation roll on, or will you speak up?
Imagine yourself requiring emergency treatment in ER alongside the additional 6,000 users. I hope you are a fatalistic and very patient individual.
Write to our local politicians. I am waiting for a response from our local member, Tamara Smith.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
