A COMMUNITY leader has claimed patients are making the 460km round trip to Warrnambool for the very same surgical procedures which are performed at Millicent and District Hospital.
The claim about the 5.5-hour return journey was made by Dr Kevin McGrath when the Millicent and District Health Advisory Council (HAC) annual general meeting was held at Millicent Hospital on Wednesday night.
Dr McGrath is an elected member of Wattle Range Council and has been its nominee to the Millicent HAC for the past five years.
“We should publicise what we do [at Millicent] as the patients do not know,” Dr McGrath said.
He directed his remarks to Millicent Hospital executive officer/director of nursing Michelle de Wit who chaired the meeting in the absence of Millicent HAC presiding member Brenton Dohnt and Limestone Coast Local Health Network chief executive Ngaire Buchanan.
In reply, Ms de Wit said it was a matter for the doctors as to where they referred their patients.
Ms de Wit said the local doctors were informed of what surgical services are available at Millicent Hospital.
Speaking earlier in the meeting, former Millicent Hospital board chairman Don Gilbertson queried the type of day surgery currently being undertaken at Millicent.
“Can what is available be published in the newspaper?” Mr Gilbertson asked.
However, Ms De Wit said the hospital was restricted in what it could published owing to privacy concerns.
She said the Millicent HAC does get some information but no specifics while a full briefing is provided to the new board of the Limestone Coast Local Health Network.
According to Ms de Wit, there is an unauthorised Millicent Hospital presence on a social media platform.
Millicent HAC member Jeniene Davis said the surgical services offered at Millicent Hospital are listed on an official website.
This states that oral and general surgery along with urology and gynaecology are undertaken at Millicent.
Before the scrapping of the Millicent Hospital board as part of new legislated changes over a decade ago, extensive information about operations and surgeons was published in its annual report.
Each year, the names, qualifications and specialities were published of the visiting doctors, surgeons and other specialists.
The position of local medical representative on the HAC has never been filled.
