Healthcare closer to home
THE Victorian healthcare system was in crisis well before the COVID pandemic began.
Now, more than two years later, we have seen elective surgery waitlists balloon to more than 87,000 people – with a record number of people waiting to see specialists.
Ambulance Victoria is regularly plunged into Code Red, and fewer than 60 per cent of patients who attended an Emergency Department in the past three months were treated in the recommended time.
Daniel Andrews has been Victoria’s Premier or Health Minister for 11 of the past 15 years.
This is not a healthcare crisis caused by COVID – it has merely exposed how fragile our health system has been with Daniel Andrews at the helm.
Labor had eight years to improve healthcare in our communities, yet it has chosen to slowly dismantle it with $2 billion of funding cut this year compared to 2021.
The only real solution is a change in government.
To date, Liberals and The Nationals have committed more than $1.5 billion to bring regional Victorian hospitals up to date.
Emma Kealy
Deputy Leader of The Nationals
Member for Lowan
Stroke awareness embraced
STROKE Foundation’s annual National Stroke Week has again been embraced by communities across the country, meaning so many more Australians will now know what stroke often looks like, and what to do when it happens.
Stroke Week, which ran from August 8 to 14 this year, always has a pertinent theme. This year we drew a link between being able to celebrate “Precious Moments” after a stroke and learning the universal stroke message F.A.S.T.
Acting F.A.S.T means you have more chance of survival and a good recovery – it means you’ll be here to enjoy those precious moments with family and friends.
That clever acronym is the easiest way to remember what stroke most often looks like, a drooping Face, inability to lift your Arms, and slurred Speech. The T is time – time to get cracking and make that triple zero call for an ambulance.
Stroke is always a medical emergency, there is never time to waste. Every minute during a stroke results in 1.9 million brain cells dying, and we just cannot turn that time back. Treatment can, however, mean a full recovery, or at least, a significant reduction in the degree of disability.
Sharon McGowan
Chief executive officer
Stroke Foundation
Pain at the pump
ON August 13, my son and his family travelled from Robinvale to Swan Hill to meet with my wife and I to travel together to Melbourne.
In Robinvale, the only fuel station with no competition and their fuel prices at the Ampol station was $172.9 per litre for unleaded petrol.
He thought to wait till he got to Swan Hill where fuel should be cheaper with the amount of competition in Swan Hill.
Passing through Nyah at the Shell service station, he noticed the price was $171.0 and at the BP Roadhouse in Nyah, it was $177.9
Thinking Swan Hill maybe a little cheaper or at least the same, he was shocked to find every service station in Swan Hill was $187.9. He was flabbergasted at this large difference when he explained to me the situation.
So we took notice on our way to Melbourne. Lake Boga $182.9, Lake Charm was $179.9, Kerang Shell $191.9 and Kerang Ampol $189.9 and a little independent service station in Kerang itself was $171.9.
Bendigo we paid $167.9 per litre, and the BP Roadhouse as you go into Melbourne, which is traditionally very expensive, was to our amazement $158.9.
At many places in Melbourne, we could buy fuel at $153.9 even in a traditionally expensive Coles Express.
So my question is, how Robinvale, in the middle of nowhere with no competition can sell fuel $0.15 cents cheaper a litre at $172.9 and Swan Hill $187.9. How can Nyah Shell sell fuel $0.16 a litre cheaper than Swan Hill.
Swan Hill residents are being taken for a ride.
Swan Hill service stations don’t give a damn about local residents.
I shall start doing what everyone else is doing – put enough fuel in my tank to get me to Bendigo and then fuel up completely.
Every service station in Swan Hill should be named and shamed for ripping residents off during these economic hard times.
Oh wait, they might blame COVID, hence everyone else uses COVID as an excuse for everything these days.
Ted Plonsker
Swan Hill
