Dedication of local health workers
THE board of directors and the executive team of Swan Hill District Health (SHDH) wish to acknowledge and recognise the dedication, hard work and commitment of each and every SHDH employee for the significant contribution they have made to keep our community safe.
It is now two years from the very first COVID case to land in Australia which marked the commencement of the pandemic.
SHDH’s band of 650 committed health professionals have continued to deliver best care to the community through very challenging and exhausting conditions.
Our teams have faced an environment of constant change and faced extreme pressure for two years to keep both the community safe and also their families at home.
SHDH employees have continued to show incredible resilience and dedication to their work and many are exhausted from working long shifts, many days straight and often short-staffed.
During peak COVID case periods, it has been a challenge to maintain a skilled health care workforce 24/7 where many of our local businesses’ workforces are also impacted by the virus.
The spread of the virus through our employees and their families has had the real potential to adversely impact our ability to provide essential services.
For SHDH and the community it serves, there is now more than ever, an urgent need to make sure the health and wellbeing of our valuable healthcare workers is a priority as we don’t wish to lose them to other career pursuits.
Please join us in congratulating the SHDH staff group for two years of dedicated and committed care to the community in the face of such a challenging time for all of us.
We congratulate our tremendous team.
Andrew Gilchrist,
Swan Hill District Health board chair
Peter Abraham,
Chief executive officer
Funding pie not big enough
LAST week as part of our ongoing RateGate campaign, I called on the Federal Government to help fix the scandalous disparity between rural/regional and metro rates.
Since the 1970s, successive federal governments have given annual untied grants to State Governments to distribute to councils. That’s obviously good. But, within the fine print, there’s two problems.
The first problem is that the Federal Government requires 30 per cent of those grants to be allocated on the basis of population before it can be allocated on any other consideration – such as need.
That means the big metro councils which are often flushed with funds (at least in relative terms) are getting more money than they need, while the small rural/regional councils aren’t getting anywhere near enough.
The second problem is the pie itself is not big enough.
Not only has the quantum of the Federal Assistance Grants shrunk significantly as a proportion of GDP over time, but it was also subject to a debilitating indexation freeze by the Coalition Government between 2014 and 2017.
Despite being lobbied over many years, both the Federal Government and Federal Opposition have made no commitment to address either of these problems. It is a classic case of the big parties failing us at a federal level, on rates.
As an Independent candidate, I will be making regional rate reform a major issue at this year’s Victorian State Election.
I suggest that our federal candidates for Mallee do the same in May.
Changing the game for rural and regional rates is a team effort.
We all need to be pulling in the same direction.
Ali Cupper,
Member for Mildura
