Alliance calls for rehab re-opening

The Woy Woy Hospital Alliance has called on local MPs Chris Holstein and Chris Hartcher to have the hospital's rehabilitation unit re-opened and for "unnecessary work" on the building to stop.

Alliance liaison officer Mr Ivan Kinny said the monthly meeting of the Alliance on Saturday, May 21, had a tone of trust mingled with impatience.

"Our Alliance has congratulated our newly-elected parliamentary representatives, Minister for Health Ms Jillian Skinner, Minister for Energy and for the Central Coast Mr Chris Hartcher, and Gosford MP Mr Chris Holstein," he said.

"These people have all declared their support for the reopening of the rehabilitation ward at the Woy Woy Public Hospital.

"However, two months have passed since their election, and unnecessary work is continuing to partition the ward into separate offices."

Mr Kinny said members wanted to know why this is and have questioned whether the health administration is still bent on its previous course, despite the Government's promises.

"A stench still hangs over the circumstances of the closure of the ward in late 2008, the permitted inspection of the premises by representatives of the private sector, the total absence of community consultation, the announcement close to Christmas, the fatuous reasons offered for the closure, the fiction that it had been relocated in Kanwal, and a total disregard for a Health Department recommendation in 2007 that it be doubled in size to 30 beds,' said Mr Kinny/

"These matters remain fresh in the minds of members, who are concerned that a great flaw has been created in the Gosford health area.

"Rehabilitation patients taken from Gosford Hospital to Kanwal are denied visitors because of a lack of public transport and a failed substitute service - a situation both inhumane and harmful to their recovery," he said.

"There is every demographic reason why the ward should be reopened.

"Any talk of a new ward in Gosford Hospital is simply pie in the sky.

"Members of the Alliance had hoped for a breath of administrative fresh air with our separation from the Northern Sydney health complex.

"However, there is a suspicion that the dead hand of the former Della Bosca-Tebbutt era still lies heavily upon our administrators.

"We call upon our elected representatives to remove it.

Mr Kinny said for the benefit of the local community, Woy Woy Hospital must be developed as a hospital and not just a cluster of ancillary services.

Media Release, 24 May 2011 Ivan Kinny, Woy Woy Hospital Alliance