Mayor Paul Maytom said Leeton Shire Council is unable to ignore the complaints made by the community about the service provided by the town's hospital.
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Councillor Maytom and council's general manager Jackie Kruger met with Murrumbidgee Local Health District's senior staff to discuss the community's concern about its emergency department.
"Leeton has more schools than Griffith, a significant number of manufacturing companies, busy farming practices and a significant amount of sport played," Cr Maytom said.
"These are all activities that warrant a first class emergency department when things go wrong and lives are at risk."
The meeting comes in the wake of Millie Salter's death who in 2020 was allegedly dismissed by a doctor when she was presented to the hospital with chest pains.
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Cr Maytom made it clear that the Leeton Shire Council does and will continue to acknowledge the good work of the staff at the hospital and the high quality care they provide.
However, Cr Maytom said that the council is unable to ignore the complaints that have been raised and encourages any members of the community to come forward in order to better improve the hospital and the quality of care it provides.
"It is essential for the council and for the MLHD that full community confidence in the hospital is restored," Cr Maytom said.
"I want to stress that Leeton residents are certainly not going to stand by and watch the gradual erosion of what should be a reasonable level of service," he continued.
At Leeton hospital there is a significant lack of visiting medical officers available on demand for triage level one and two cases to be attended to by.
During their meeting MLHD told council that a lack of staff in career medical officer and nurse practitioner positions was not a problem unique to Leeton or the region, but all of rural Australia.
"The position of council is that the health system is broken - the federally funded services and state funded services seem to compete with each other for staff instead of working together for the best community outcomes," Cr Maytom said.
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Cr Maytom said the council hopes to drive a community-led approach to health care, and has invited MLHD and Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network to join in along with Leeton and District Aboriginal Lands Council.
The aim is to complete a health needs assessment for the community and determine a more collaborative approach to tailoring services to local residents.
To help address the lack of VMOs in Leeton hospital, MLHD was asked if council could participate in meetings that MLHD has with GPs, however they are currently unable to.
"Ideally we would like to attend these meetings to better understand how things work and seek input from local GPs about what Leeton needs to ensure high quality emergency care," Cr Maytom said.
An MLHD spokeswoman said patients and carers were able to speak about any concerns about their care.
"Feedback and complaints are an important way to identify concerns regarding care and improve services and we actively encourage patients, families or carers to contact us to discuss their experience," the spokeswoman said.
"All concerns raised are treated in confidence and investigated thoroughly, and honest and open feedback is provided on the outcomes and actions undertaken to prevent recurrence and improve standards of care.
"Complaints about health care can also be made to the Health Care Complaints Commission, which is an independent body set up under the Health Care Complaints Act 1993."
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