The Editor

Southern Free Times

Stanthorpe

Dear Editor

Management and staff at Tenterfield Health Service were disappointed to read your article last week which implied that the Health Service was like an asylum.

I would like to make it clear the services available at Tenterfield Health Services are in line with other similar size health facilities in rural NSW.

Contemporary care has changed significantly over the past few decades, with health services providing as many local services as possible, but with a focus on primary and community health services.

The time of delivering babies and surgery in small rural communities is gone. It is not possible to ensure the availability of skilled medical, nursing, midwifery and allied health staff to safely provide these services. Recruitment of these staff to rural areas is a well documented challenge for all health services.

The way the Health Service has managed these issues is to create networks with other hospitals to provide these services. It is safer to provide maternity and surgical services where there is the backup of specialist care.

The comment about equipment being removed must also be corrected. Firstly, the hospital has an ECG machine which is an adult heart monitor. Prof Hon actually donated a CTG machine back in the 1970’s which was one of the first foetal heart monitors in Australia. This machine was replaced around 1990, and was about to be decommissioned when maternity services ceased in Tenterfield some 12 years later, but was loaned to Glen Innes Health Service for a short period.

We are very supportive of community involvement in the local health service, and we would like to thank those dedicated individuals who have the community’s interest at heart and persist with fundraising and representing the community on the Local Health Advisory Committee (LHAC).

The Tenterfield LHAC, like those in all other health services, are designed to be intermediatries, or representatives, between the health service and the local community. As such they are an opportunity for two-way communication.

These committees do not operate like boards, which look at policy and procedural activities of the health service. Their role is to provide a community perspective to the direction health services take.

Recently, for example, our local LHAC visited Guyra’s Multi Purpose Service, with a view to understanding what this model of care would have to offer the Tenterfield community. They were impressed by what they saw, and now have a better understanding of the service model so that any future discussions can be educated ones.

Similarly, we will be informing the community regarding recommendations resulting from the current external review into clinical issues and processes at the Health Service.

We would also like to take the opportunity to commend the staff at Tenterfield Health Service for the taking this review as an opportunity to find better ways of doing things, and for their continued hard work to provide excellent health care to the community.

 Yours sincerely

 Wendy Mulligan

Tablelands Cluster General Manager