We, the undersigned, believe Eastern Health should not proceed with the planned removal of six Exercise Physiologist positions from within Ambulatory and Community Services.

We are specifically concerned about two aspects of the proposal:

1.     The replacement of degree qualified Allied Health Professionals with lower skilled staff.

2.     The removal of all Exercise Physiologist positions from multidisciplinary allied health professional teams across Eastern Health

Accredited Exercise Physiologists are highly skilled at facilitating patient self-management, and preventing avoidable hospital admissions. They make a valuable contribution to multi-disciplinary allied health professional teams.

We are also concerned about the broader implications of cutting allied health professional positions and replacing them with lower skilled non degree qualified staff. 

We ask that the Minister for Health, Jill Hennessy, intervene to request that Eastern Health halt the proposed redundancies.