Janet Mays

Elective surgery figures released under FOI and telegraphed by the NSW Shadow Minister for Health (BMG 20/2/08), add weight to the anecdotal evidence and concerns of community members regarding a change in the service levels at Katoomba hospital.

For some time now, I and others have been asking for a Services Directory for Katoomba hospital. We want to understand what primary health care services the hospital actually provides. A simple enough request I would have thought for a functioning hospital, however the Directory has yet to materialise.

At the December 14^th 2007 SWAHS Community Information and Consultation meeting, I suggested that by providing the facts about what the hospital actually does and doesn’t do, community concerns around a perceived service decline might be eased. My suggestion was acknowledged by SWAHS and promises were made to provide such information. We still wait.

As SWAHS has been unable to provide a Services Directory for Katoomba hospital, perhaps our local hospital management could oblige and tell the upper Mountains community what hospital services they can obtain locally and for what services they will be required to go to Nepean hospital and beyond.

Letter published in the Blue Mountains Gazette 27th February 2008