Melbourne: The Save Our Community Medical Service Committee has organised the first of a series of weekly campaign meetings for anyone to attend who is interested in saving our community medical service at the Moreland Community Health Centre. The meeting has been organised for: Tuesday, 13th July at 7.00pm Warr Park Community Centre, De Carle Street, Brunswick. Then every week from Tuesday the 27th July at the Warr Park Community Centre. For more information contact Brunswick Progress Association on (03) 9380 4463 or Community Health Action Group on (03) 9386 2082 or Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------- For your information - the following report of the public meeting on last Wednesday night at the Brunswick Town Hall has been loaded to the Save our Community Medical Service Webpage at: http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/jul99.htm Thursday 8th July 1999: Meeting of Moreland Residents Protests against closure of community medical service On a cold wintery night a meeting of over 300 angry residents at the Brunswick Town Hall protested against the decision to close the Brunswick Community Health Centre Medical Service. Several moving statements were made describing the importance and the usefulness of the service, and the necessity for its continuation. Helen Lee, the person who initiated the community picket outside the Health Centre for the previous 10 days, presented CEO Philip Moran with a petition signed by more than 1,700 residents (more signatures were still being collected at the back of the hall). A number of motions were carried unanimously, including a motion that the Board of Management at its next meeting rescind its decision to close the medical service, and to setup an independant working party to include representatives of Council and the Save Our Community Medical Service Committee, to look at creative solutions for maintaining the medical service. Further motions endorsed a joint delegation of the Moreland Community Health Centre Board, the City of Moreland and the Save our Community Medical Service Committee to both the Federal and State Health ministers seeking funding and support to enable continuation and expansion of the community medical health service model. It was also seen as very important that the Community Health Centre involve the community much more in what services are provided and how they are provided. Originally community involvement was an important attribute of the centre which has been steadily diminishing over several years. The fact that the local community no longer selects a Committee of Management, but has a Board appointed by the State Minister has substantially contributed to the feeling of community disempowerment. It was announced at the meeting that the Economics columnist, Kenneth Davidson, had agreed to examine the past few years accounts of the Health centre. This independant examination is important to reassure the community that the Health Centre finances are being properly managed. One of the doctors employed by the service raised the issue of a lack of consultation and cooperation between Management and the doctors. In the past year three female doctors have left the service (two of these doctors attended the meeting), which has precipitated a staffing crisis. The problem of staff consultation and a suitable working environment must be addressed by management. The meeting was attended by Carlo Carli, State Member for Coburg, who offered his assistance in finding a creative solution for the continuation of the Medical Service. Kelvin Thompson, Federal Member for Wills, was also in attendance, while Lindsay Tanner, Member for Melbourne, Jenny Macklin, Federal Shadow Health Minister, and John Thwaites, State Shadow Health Minister sent their apologies. Kelvin Thomson has circulated a letter he has sent to Federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge on the closure of the medical service and asking "advice about what can be done to help the MCHC continue to provide its quality service." Jenny Macklin, Federal Shadow Minister for Health, has sent out a media release on 6th July to tighten up over-servicing rules for Medicare rebates for Doctors. This obviously needs to be done to reduce the abuse by some doctors of the medicare system by pushing through as many patients as possible. Jenny Macklin said "more than 100 doctors are believed to charge Medicare for more than 80 consultations a day....This exceeds a reasonable level and it puts at risk the quality of patient care." However, our community Health Centre has the opposite problem - our doctors often need long consultations with clients with complex medical problems, which means while the quality of medical care is high, the income rebate from medicare is proportionally low. The medicare rebate discriminates against Medical Practices which bulk bill and provide quality medical care to a client base with a disproportional amount of complex medical problems. This needs to be addressed through special funding programs or by changing the medicare rebate system some way to take into account the financial problems in providing quality community medical care. Ultimately, the financial problems of managing the services of the Health Centre can be attributed back to the policies of the Federal and State Governments. As a community we must unite against the extension of economic rationalism to community services, in whatever shape or form. Report by Takver -- Takver Takver's Soapbox: http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm War on the Wharfies - Radical Tradition, an Aussie History Page http://members.xoom.com/takver/history/index.htm Visit the People's Justice Alliance: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~pjan/ LL.VG -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
