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Collapse Issue 575:<br />7 Aug 2023<br />_____________Issue 575:
7 Aug 2023
_____________
Collapse  NEWS NEWS
After-hours medical service faces closure
Read Peninsula News on your mobile phone
Rotarians drive across Australia for children's charity
First Rotary Exchange student since Covid
Quick thinking prevents spread of kitchen fire
Vietnam memorial day to be held at Ettalong
Woy Woy businesses eligible for facade grants
Ausgrid fells 'oldest street tree' in Pearl Beach*
Men's Shed makes beehive roofs for arboretum
Council cemetery team tells about memorial trees
Registration opens for oyster-eating competition
Volunteers wanted at Mary Mac's Place
Pre-school students join in National Tree Day planting
Woman goes missing twice in a week
Service NSW introduces Quiet Hour
Surfers association welcomes disability parking*
Women receive donation for Cancer Council*
Extra $2 food option to help sick children*
Awards for supporting Lions fundraising over 10 years
Sausage sizzle to raise money for Mary Mac's Place*
Central Coast 'Run for The Voice' ends at Ettalong
Coastal Twist shop window competition opens
New pedestrian refuge welcomed*
Tesch joins calls to save Empire Bay Boat Shed*
Consider applying for Seniors Festival grant, says Tesch*
Information about services for older people
Holly speaks of her archery
Restaurant owner welcomes energy bill relief*
Grocery donations for Mary Mac's*
Grants available to support volunteers*
Christmas in July at Rotary*
Rotary club holds coffee meeting
Widows group holds Christmas in July*
CWA branch holds Winterfest*
Donations wanted for trivia night*
Tesch to speak at disability summit*
Only four days with rain in dry July
Collapse  PLANNING PLANNING
Two-storey multi-dwelling proposal for Britannia St
Council gives list of reasons for refusing dual occupancy
Council planners recommend refusal of dual occupancy
Development application for new mooring
Application seeks changes to 2017 development approval
Proposal to double Booker Bay child centre capacity
Panel to hear of three appeals for 'deemed refusal'*
Everglades upgrade proposal to go to planning panel
Collapse  FORUM FORUM
New ambulance station almost finished
Planning process deprives residents of sunlight
When a promise is not a promise
Has estuary health changed since 2001?
Collapse  HEALTH HEALTH
Celebrating Aged Care Employee Day for a whole week
Flower arranging workshops held regularly
Deaf residents inspire others to learn Auslan
Quilts donated to Elsie's Retreat
Medicare changes 'unlikely to help after-hours service'
Aged care home expects to start stage two next year*
Coronavirus numbers lowest since December 2021
Collapse  ARTS ARTS
Everyone is welcome at monthly play readings
Choir to hold concert in Woy Woy*
'Wonderful works' produced by patchwork group*
Collapse  EDUCATION EDUCATION
Students 'take home the chocolates'
Banksias replanted in Melbourne Ave
School hosts second rehearsal for choral festival
Leadership team get their hands dirty
Children take home native plant*
Savannah's cross-country success
Skipping challenge raises money for Heart Foundation
Students encouraged to speak publicly
Dancers and choir perform at variety night*
Collapse  SPORT SPORT
Chosen as soccer coaches of the year
Mixed pairs final was 'great game to watch'
Triples championship final played at Umina
SEU have 1-0 soccer win over The Entrance
Umina United in match of the round in women's soccer
Second soccer win of the year
East Gosford women have 9-0 victory over SEU
Terrigal meets Woy Woy in rugby union
Senior cricket training starts on Saturday
Sisters swim at national pool rescue event
Surf club offers bronze medallion course
Ocean Beach surf club offers First Aid course*
Softball registrations open*
Bowling club to hold annual meeting
Development team visits Woy Woy rugby league juniors*
Sydney Swans Academy holds trials*

EXTRA!!!

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After-hours medical service faces closure

The Woy Woy After Hours Medical Service, which has been providing GP services weeknights and weekends to the local community for over 50 years, is facing imminent closure.

Medical Service director Dr Paul Duff said that, unless funding can be found, the service which sees around 3000 patients a year will have to close on Thursday, September 7.

"We did hear that some sort of interim offer to allow us to stay open a couple of extra weeks was on the table, but no one has confirmed this and we don't know if the amount is enough to keep the doors open.

"As a result, we were forced to give all our staff notice that we will be closing on September 7.

"It is almost impossible to work out who in fact is making this decision about our funding.

"We keep on being told to expect an answer but the most recent excuse we have received was that someone involved in the decision making process from the federal department was on leave."

"A big part of the problem is that we are not dealing with the Federal Government directly but rather via Coast and Country Primary Care via the Hunter New England Central Coast Primary Health Network with the Department of Health at the end of the chain of Chinese whispers."

Last week Federal Member for Robertson Dr Gordon Reid told Peninsula News he had "made urgent representations to Federal Health Minister Mr Mark Butler, and underscored the importance of this vital service for our community".

He said he had also been in touch with the regional Primary Health Network and was awaiting a full update on the future of the Woy Woy After Hours Service.

Dr Reid said, as an emergency doctor at Wyong Hospital, he understood the consequences of the service discontinuing.

He said that was why he had raised this matter urgently with the appropriate stakeholders.

Dr Duff said the non-profit After Hours Medical Service, run by community-minded doctors, was able to offer services not available elsewhere.

"We see many patients who say they can't get in to see other GPs at all.

"We see many from practices which are not accessible after hours or where patients have to wait a week or more to see a GP."

He said the service was able to respond within an hour or so, "compared to the eight- to 12-hour wait they might expect at Gosford Hospital's Accident and Emergency".

Among the "more immediate and urgent problems" seen by the service were "lacerations, embedded fish hooks, pieces of metal stuck in peoples eyes, pneumonias, chest pain consistent with blood clots and heart disease, bites and children in pain from infections and injuries".

"All of these people we usually see within an hour or so.

"The service almost universally continues to bulk bill," he said.

Dr Duff said the funding bodies had been aware for at least 12 months that the service was unsustainable without further support.

"Providing after hours care has always been regarded as a vital part of what GPs do but it has never been profitable.

"For decades, our not-for-profit service has been dependent on government funding, a dependency that has become greater and greater as the Medicare rebate has fallen further and further behind the cost of providing the service," said Dr Duff, who has co-ordinated the service for the last 25 years.

He said the service had cut back to be the leanest possible.

"Even so, a reduction in our funding a couple of years ago has meant the service has been going backwards, only surviving by eating into contingency savings built up over many years.

"The funding being offered is not increasing at all and with the sky rocketing costs of insurances, software licences, and wages we have no chance of making ends meet."

Without increased funding, the service will close at the end of September.

"I think we will be missed," said Dr Duff.





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