YARRAM & District Health Service (YDHS) was forced to respond last week following online outrage and concern over health resources and a local doctor’s employment status.
The Bridge reported that one of Yarram’s locum doctors, Dr Alistair Lewis, was informed by their agency that they would have to leave the town, despite him wanting to stay. Prior to this, a petition was started by locals and supporters of Dr Lewis for him to remain in the town, as well as express concern about the town’s health services.
“We will do whatever it takes to make those in charge at YDHS to take notice of the community and answer questions about the vision for YDHS and the medical centre,” the petition reportedly read.
A Facebook event was also created to protest at the Yarram & District Hospital, but was cancelled after YHDS responded to the controversy.
Just before 3pm on Wednesday, YDHS chief executive, Paul Head, released a statement on social media.
“It is not the policy of Yarram and District Health Service to respond to social media claims, especially about our workforce. However, the unwarranted criticism of YDHS on another social media page is distressing for our people and highly inaccurate,” Mr Head said in the statement.
“Due to confidentiality restrictions, we are unable to comment on the employment details of individuals. What we can say, however, is that we understand this misinformation has obviously caused concern for some in our community.
“Firstly, in response to specific concerns and comments about the Yarram Medical Service. The facts are that under the current board and management team, YDHS has increased the available GP appointments by 200 per cent over the last two years; a huge improvement in GP accessibility for community. The Yarram Medical Service, like most rural general practices throughout Australia, has struggled to attract permanent doctors for some years, despite its best efforts.
“Because of this and like other medical services, YDHS uses the locum model for doctors, which means we now have a fully staffed clinic with six doctors who work on a rotation, equivalent to three full-time doctors. They are contracted to YDHS through their respective locum agencies and our contract is with those agencies.
“To be clear, locum doctors have a contractual obligation to the agency they work for, thus preventing YDHS from transitioning locums to full time employment with the health service.”
Mr Head said they are working on a solution to this issue.
“YDHS is actively working with Dr Alistair Lewis’ locum agency to negotiate him out of his contractual obligations with his agency which would make him available to work on an ongoing basis directly with YDHS.
“These negotiations are ongoing and nothing is confirmed at this stage,” he said.
“In the meantime, we would like to assure the community we will continue to work to provide the best services possible for our community.”
