Fourth meeting on rehabilitation ward
More than 40 Peninsula residents have attended a fourth community meeting in an attempt to have rehabilitation beds returned to Woy Woy Hospital.
The meeting was held at St Luke's Anglican Church in Woy Woy on February 2,
Meeting coordinator Mr Ed James of Umina said he was glad to see support continued in the fight to save Woy Woy Hospital.
He said community members were frustrated that government representatives had not given adequate reasons for the closure of the hospital's rehabilitation unit.
"Residents are part of a ground swell of opposition to the transfer of the 30-bed rehabilitation ward away from a needy community of elderly people," Mr James said.
"Many are returned service personnel."
He said they all should be able to expect "this important amenity to be close by".
He said many older people had moved to the Peninsula with a reasonable expectation that the rehabilitation unit would continue to operate at Woy Woy Hospital.
"Closing a 30-bed ward and replacing it with a so-called free bus, which makes one round trip to Kanwal 50 kilometres away each day, does not make sense for an elderly population.
"Wyong Hospital is not at Wyong.
"It is actually located a $20 taxi ride away from Wyong train station.
"This move, said to be based on the Garling report and its assessment by senior NSW Health people, is a smack in the face to elderly people.
"What NSW Health and Health Minister John Della Bosca have done is ignore the importance of family and friends in the process of rehabilitation completely... just as they have ignored the dining room at Woy Woy Hospital where patients and visiting family could socialise over communal meals.
"Those patients are now jammed into Wyong Hospital at Kanwal and made to eat in their rooms and beds."
Email, 6 Feb 2009
Edward James, Umina Beach