Day 150 since the closure of Mersey Community Hospital Emergency Department.

As the mainland continues to struggle with Covid-19 we appreciate more and more how lucky we are to live here in Tasmania.

Gorgeous scenery, clean air, friendly folk and no dangerous wildlife except for slimy politicians trying to strip our healthcare away.

As previously discussed the root cause of our current troubles is a long term refusal to employ permanent doctors at the Mersey, instead relying upon locums now unavailable due to Covid-19.

No doubt the government will claim to make fixing this a priority after things settle down but as the joke goes: if a politician's lips are moving, they are lying.

Post Covid-19 we need absolute transparency from the government that everything possible is being done to make the Mersey Community Hospital as attractive as possible to both new and established Emergency doctors.

We live in the most beautiful place in the world, tell me no ED Doctors want to live here and I will call bullshit, other factors must be at play.

Over the last few months readers have sent in suggestions to address this alleged difficulty in getting permanent ED doctors, I have included some below:

* I have omitted full names and have not verified accuracy.

'G' says:

"A major deterrent to ED docs moving here is the requirement to work at both MCH and NWRH. When you live in Deloraine, Devonport, Latrobe etc being rostered at Burnie means you don't see your family. Why can't we have dedicated Docs for the Mersey? A 24 hour hospital has plenty of work to justify dedicated staff who would get to know the community and provide consistent service."

'D' says:

"An easy idea would be to put an incentive in place. Scholarships for up and coming doctors from the coast, after uni to spend five years at the Mersey, then go on their own way if they want? Ongoing system to keep it staffed. Don't have to rely on locums."

Nothing comes for free so step 1 should be a thorough audit of the manner in which the $750000000 granted to this hospital in 2016 has so far been spent. Right down to the last cent. How much has "leaked" into other places? This issue was already being raised by Wayne Cooper's letter to the editor in 2017, an interesting read.

Finally I encourage you to sign the labour parties petition around restoring service to the Mersey Community Hospital ED.

Yes this does just represent a different set of politicians looking to gain from our loss but this issue is bigger than partisan politics and maybe we can fight fire with fire.

It can't hurt to show support for the MCH any way we can so please sign but keep in mind that we the community need to take responsibility for getting the things we need.

Never let those without skin in the game make decisions for you.

"You don’t get what you wish for; you get what you work for."

Stay safe,

Tasmanian Citizen
citizenoftasmania@gmail.com